Marine Ice Sheet Collapse Potentially Under Way for the Thwaites Glacier Basin, West Antarctica

By Ian R. Joughin, Ben E. Smith, B. Medley. Science, 2014

864 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Atmospheric Science, Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/40223faf58030d5d176d574819f8d3c23f67b616

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Citations in the corpus

A roadmap for Antarctic and Southern Ocean science for the next two decades and beyond (2014, background): “A more thorough understanding of how ice sheets have responded to past climate change and howmarine-based ice sheets responded during previous inter-glacial periods and past amplified warming of Antarctica will improve predictions of the response of the Antarctic ice sheet to a warming world (Q.28, ”
Tipping elements and climate–economic shocks: Pathways toward integrated assessment (2016, background): “…an instability appears to be occurring in multiple outlet glaciers of the Amundsen Sea Embayment sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, creating a sea-level rise commitment that could equal much or all of the 1.2-m sea-level equivalent in this sector [Joughin et al., 2014; Rignot et al., 2014].”
The land ice contribution to sea level during the satellite era (2017, background): “This configuration is believed to be inherently unstable and is associated with the marine ice sheet instability hypothesis first posited in the 1970s (Hughes 1973, Mercer 1978) and now, potentially, already underway (Joughin et al 2014).”
Evolving Understanding of Antarctic Ice‐Sheet Physics and Ambiguity in Probabilistic Sea‐Level Projections (2017, background): “…Glaciers on Greenland, and Crane Glacier on the Antarctic Peninsula) are experiencing rates of calving and structural failure at the terminus, comparable to the seaward flow of the glaciers, on the order of ∼2 to > 12 km/yr [e.g., Howat et al., 2008; Joughin et al., 2014; Wuite et al., 2015].”
Contribution of Antarctica to past and future sea-level rise (2016, neutral): “So far, the potential for MISI to cause ice-sheet retreat has focused on the role of ocean-driven melting of buttressing ice shelves from below 16,18–20 .”
Interacting tipping elements increase risk of climate domino effects under global warming (2020, background): “This destabilising mechanism is possibly already underway in the Amundsen Sea region (Favier et al., 2014; Joughin et al., 2014; Joughin and Alley, 2011).”
Exceeding 1.5°C global warming could trigger multiple climate tipping points (2022, neutral): “The grounding line of Thwaites glacier is only ~30 km away from the subglacial ridge and retreating at ~1 km per year (47); eventual collapsemay already be inevitable (10, 45).”
Antarctic sub-shelf melt rates via PICO (2017, background): “Simplistic parameterizations that depend on the local ocean and ice-shelf properties have been applied in long-term and large-scale ice sheet simulations (Joughin et al., 2014; Martin et al., 2011; Pollard and DeConto, 2012; Favier et al., 2014).”