Study: Melting ice in west Antarctica could raise seas by 10 feet

Scientists on Monday said melting ice in west Antarctica could raise global sea levels by nearly 10 feet.

Using computer models, researchers at Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany found that the Amundsen Sea area of west Antarctica "has most likely been destabilized," and if the ice melts for 60 more years at its current rate, it "would drive the west Antarctic ice sheet past a critical threshold beyond which a complete, long-term disintegration would occur," meaning "the entire marine ice sheet will discharge into the ocean, causing a global sea level rise of about three meters," or almost 10 feet. Furthermore, the team said, "if the destabilization has begun, a three meter increase in sea level over the next several centuries to millennia may be unavoidable."

The researchers wrote in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that all it takes is a few decades of ocean warming to trigger hundreds to thousands of years of melting ice, Agence France-Presse reports. "Once the ice masses get perturbed, which is what is happening today, they respond in a non-linear way: There is a relatively sudden breakdown of stability after a long period during which little change can be found," lead author Johannes Feldman explained. The researchers said they do not know if the destabilization is caused by greenhouse gas emissions, but author Anders Levermann said "it is clear that further greenhouse gas emissions will heighten the risk of an ice collapse in west Antarctica and more unstoppable sea level rise."

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The team says much more research needs to be conducted in the region, which will be a difficult task. Last year, NASA glaciologist Eric Rignot published research saying the melting of ice in the Antarctic was "unstoppable" and could raise sea level by 1.2 meters, or almost four feet, AFP reports.