For almost a decade, climate scientists have been trying to get their heads around a particularly disastrous scenario for how West Antarctica's gigantic ice sheet might break apart, bringing catastrophe to the world's coasts. It goes like this: Once enough of the ice sheet's floating edges melt away, what remains are immense, sheer cliffs of ice facing the sea. These cliffs will be so tall and steep that they are unstable.
Now, though, a group of researchers has put forth evidence that the prospect may be more remote than previously thought. As humans burn fossil fuels and heat the planet, West Antarctica's ice remains vulnerable to destruction in many forms. But this particular form, in which ice cliffs collapse one after the other, looks less likely, according to the scientists' computer simulations.
We're not saying that we're safe, said Mathieu Morlighem, a professor of earth science at Dartmouth College who led the research. The Antarctic ice sheet is going to disappear; this is going to happen. The question is how fast.
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