TSI Seminar

Antarctic Tipping Points: How Ice Shelves and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet are Shaping Our Sea-Level Future

Karen Alley

University of Manitoba

Warm ocean water is melting the edges of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, leading to the loss of floating ice shelves and the retreat of grounded ice. West Antarctica, the fastest-changing section of the ice sheet, may be one of the true tipping points in our climate system. If warming destabilizes Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica's largest outlet glacier, the world could see a few meters of sea-level rise over the next few centuries. This talk will focus on the instabilities that matter to Thwaites, West Antarctica, and the world's coastlines, and what scientists are doing to try to better understand and predict the behaviour of this important system.