Study reveals that heat from the deep ocean is approaching Antarctica

ORIGIN: https://www.yourweather.co.uk/news/

A decades-long study using oceanographic data provides the first evidence that heat from the deep ocean has moved closer to Antarctica, threatening the fragile ice shelves surrounding the continent.

The upwelling of warm Circumpolar Deep Water is a fundamental process for the global climate system, transporting heat, nutrients and carbon towards the poles and Antarctica’s ice shelves.

A study led by the University of Cambridge, with collaborators from the University of California, compiled long-term ocean measurements collected by ships and robotic floating devices to show that a warm water mass known as Circumpolar Deep Water has expanded and shifted towards the Antarctic continental shelf over the past 20 years. Previously, scientists did not have enough ocean observations to detect the warming trend.

The importance of ice shelves and the imminent change

Ice shelves play an important role in holding back Antarctica’s ice sheets and glaciers, which together store enough fresh water to raise sea levels by around 58 metres.

This is the first time scientists have observed the shift in deep ocean heat across the entire Southern Ocean. Previous