Uploaded June 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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The retreat of the West Antarctic ice masses after the last Ice Age was reversed surprisingly about 10,000 years ago. This is in stark contrast to previous assumptions. In fact, it was the shrinking itself that stopped the shrinking: relieved from the weight of the ice, the Earth crust lifted and triggered the re-advance of the ice sheet. However, this mechanism is much too slow to prevent dangerous sea-level rise caused by West Antarctica’s ice-loss in the present and near future. Only rapid greenhouse-gas emission reductions can. More information: pik-potsdam.de/news/press-releases/what-saved-the-west-antarctic-ice-sheet-10-000-years-ago-will-not-save-it-today

Article: J. Kingslake, R.P. Scherer, T. Albrecht, J. Coenen, R.D. Powell, R. Reese, N.D. Stansell, S. Tulaczyk, M.G. Wearing, P.L. Whitehouse (2018): Extensive retreat and re-advance of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet during the Holocene. Nature [DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0208-x]

Weblink to the article: dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0208-x