The immense weight of Antarctic ice has pushed the land down, and as the ice melts, the Earth slowly rebounds. Due to this rebound, the ice margin is retreating slower and there is less ice in contact with the relatively warm ocean water, reducing ice melt rates. The uplift can be as much as 150 metres over the next 500 years.
This surprising effect is often left out of future sea level rise projections. When we take into account this rebound effect, sea level rise projections can be reduced by up to 20% in the year 2500, which corresponds to about 1 metre global sea level change. The results were published in Nature Communications.
“It’s important to recognise that the global mean sea level will rise in all emission scenarios. But if we account for bedrock uplift in the model, the sea-level will rise somewhat slower“, says Caroline Van Calcar, who carried out the PhD research at TU Delft Aerospace Engineering and IMAU (Utrecht University).
Supervisor Wouter van der Wal: “We knew land uplift could change the fate of ancient ice sheets on a timescale of thousands of years. Caroline’s research showed that it can affect the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet on a timescale that is relevant for humanity.”
Source: Linkedin Post, Image credits: Liesbeth Bronkhorst