Tipping points

An international team of researchers will drill into the ocean floor under the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) to learn how it will respond to global warming of 2°C. The WAIS is a segment of the continental ice sheet that covers West Antarctica, constituting an estimated ten per cent of its ice. If it were to melt, it would raise ocean levels by nearly four metres. The sediment cores retrieved by the team will reveal how the ice behaved in the past, when global temperatures were as warm as those that may occur in the coming decades. They could also reveal whether there’s a tipping point beyond which ice loss is irreversible and self-sustaining.