Recent research has revealed evidence of geothermal heating from below the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which could be bad news amidst concerns of rising sea levels.
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet has been under recent fire from rising global temperatures, shedding much of its mass into the Southern Ocean in the form of liquid fresh water. According to a report from UPI, that’s not all the ice sheet needs to be concerned about – scientists have just detected a surprising amount of heat being applied to the ice from geothermal activity below.
Using a deep probe, scientists took measurements of the flow of heat in the sediments underneath the ice sheet. They were shocked to find that the amount of heat flowing upward from the crust was much higher than they expected.
Despite the heat given off by the ground below the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the recent massive losses suffered by the top of sheet have little to do with geothermal activity.
According to professor Andrew Fisher of the University of Santa Cruz, the geothermal heat flux is nothing that the ice sheet hasn’t been dealing with since it formed.
Nonetheless, it could help explain why the ice sheet is so unstable on the top of the ground. Excess heat from sources like climate change can push the ice sheet around, but it seems to have been sitting on unstable ground the whole time.
The geothermal heat flux clocked in at 285 milliwatts per square meter, which is equivalent to the heat emitted by a single Christmas light each square meter.
The finding makes performing models on ice melt to predict how it might affect sea level rise all the more difficult, but it is an important factor to consider when assessing the risks posed by rising sea levels.