Storm-driven ocean swells have triggered the catastrophic disintegration of Antarctic ice shelves in recent decades, according to new research published in Nature (https://goo.gl/oeUTRR).
Lead author Dr Rob Massom of the Australian Antarctic Division and the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre said that reduced sea-ice coverage since the late 1980s led to increased exposure of ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula to ocean swells, causing them to flex and break.
“Sea-ice acts as a protective buffer to ice shelves by dampening destructive ocean swells before they reach the ice shelf edge,” Massom said. “But where there is loss of sea-ice, storm-generated ocean swells can easily reach the exposed ice shelf, causing the first few kilometres of its outer...
