Key Points
Modelling the influence of this subglacial discharge on the retreat of two glaciers in East Antarctica, the researchers found that it raised the glaciers' contribution to sea-level rise by 15.7 per cent -- from 19 millimetres to 22 millimetres -- by the year 2300...
The findings, relevant in a high emissions scenario featuring 20 per cent higher CO2 emissions by 2100, suggested that the subglacial discharge's influence was large enough to make a meaningful contribution to global sea-level rise, the researchers at the University of California San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the US said...
Current models making major sea-level rise projections, including those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), do not take into account this mechanism of subglacial discharge, the researchers said.. Thus, it could mean that current projections underestimate the pace of global sea-level rise in decades to come, they said.. "Knowing when and how much global sea-level will rise is critical to the welfare of coastal communities," said Tyler Pelle, the study's lead author and a postdoctoral researcher at Scripps...
The resulting glacial retreat can then contribute to and drive sea level rise.. The reason why this mechanism of subglacial discharge is not currently considered in sea-level rise projections is because many researchers weren't sure if its localised effects were sufficiently large to increase sea-level rise globally, according to Jamin Greenbaum, co-author of the study and a researcher at Scripps Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics...
This is because their model found that in a low emissions scenario, the glaciers did not retreat all the way into the trench and thus did not result in making runaway contributions to sea-level rise.. "If there is a doomsday story here it isn't subglacial discharge," said Greenbaum..
