Melting ice may cause dozens of volcanoes beneath Antarctica‘s colossal ice sheet to erupt and trigger a troubling feedback loop of environmental damage, scientists have warned.
A new study by researchers from Brown University, Rhode Island, US, saw scientists running 4,000 computer simulations to get a better sense of how the gradual loss of ice, which is being driven by the climate crisis, affects the vast magma chambers deep beneath the continent’s ice sheet.
Antarctica, a virtually uninhabited landmass that surround’s Earth’s south pole, is home to more than 100 volcanoes.
Some of these rise above the ice, though many are deeply buried, making it difficult for scientists to track and study them, as per The Independent.
The report’s findings indicate that when the ice melts, pressure on the rocks below is relieved, which results in the compressed magma expanding.
As a result, more pressure is exerted on the walls of magma chambers, which scientists fear could awaken the continent’s volcanoes and encourage eruptions.
At the moment, the ice sheet is a protective barrier over the magma. But when melting ice causes the overburden pressure to drop, gases dissolved in the magma are released.
These gases cause pressure in the magma chamber to rise, making an eruption more likely, as per the outlet.
As these volcanoes are beneath the surface, the eruptions themselves may not be visible, but the consequences for the continent could be considerable.
The heat generated by these hidden volcanoes can speed up melting deep below the surface, which scientists say weakens the ice sheet, bringing the potential for further volcanic activity.
Researchers fear it could become a vicious cycle of surface pressure being reduced by melting ice, with further volcanic eruptions as a result. This would then produce heat that only exacerbates the speed at which the ice is melting.
Troublingly, it may be too late to prevent this pattern, the study suggests. The process is thought to take place over hundreds of years, meaning it could continue even if emissions are markedly reduced.
Similar processes may have taken place during the last ice age at a time when Antarctica’s ice sheet was significantly thicker, the outlet reports.
All this is expected to take place at a slow pace, but brings renewed concerns about the long-term future of Antarctica, which already makes an enormous contribution to rising sea levels.
The ice sheet is shrinking more rapidly each year, according to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition.
By the year 2020, the pace of ice loss in Antarctica had multiplied sixfold over three decades, it adds on its website.
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