The collapse of Antarctica’s most vulnerable ice shelves would just be the start of our problems

There’s a reasonable chance that Antarctica’s two most vulnerable ice shelves — the ends of massive glaciers that float over the ocean — will succumb to Earth’s warming climate and eventually collapse into the sea. 

These particular shelves, known as Larsen C and George VI, are perched on the Antarctic Peninsula — the finger that runs up towards South America. Glacial scientists have now gauged how much oceans would rise if the ice shelves fail, and the news isn’t good. 

The research, published Thursday in the journal The Cryosphere, shows that taken together, the glaciers’ overall contribution to rising seas wouldn’t be enormous — adding some 10 millimeters (under half an inch) by the end of the century.  Read more…

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