A mountain is reflected in a bay that used to be covered by the Sheldon glacier on the Antarctic peninsula.Reuters
A recent study has revealed that warm winds pouring down the sides of the mountain range that runs the length of the Antarctic Peninsula are melting ice sheets up to 100 kilometres away. This melting of ice contributes to the rising sea levels.
According to reports, the winds could be behind the growing collection of pools and cracks on the Larson C ice sheet, which lies towards the tip of the peninsula and is looking particularly vulnerable. Its companions Larson A and Larson B broke off spectacularly in 1995 and 2002 respectively.
The study said that Föhn winds have now been identified as contributing as much as an extra 40 millimetres of melt across the ice sheet each year at a distance of 100km. These winds have much further-reaching effects than previously realised. They are also causing melting throughout the year, not just in summer time as was thought before.
The study author Jenny Turton of the British Antarctic Survey and the University of Leeds told a press conference at the EGU meeting in Vienna that the strongest effects of the winds are expected to be on the ice close to the mountain range.
"They're a lot more spatially extensive than we thought and also more frequent. Larson C is the size of Wales. So if this föhn happened in Snowdonia, you would still be able to feel the impacts at the English border," Turton said. In this gallery, IBTimes Singapore brings you a series of images of the threatened ice shelves and glaciers of The South Pole.
An oblique view of a massive rift in the Antarcitc Peninsula's Larsen C ice shelf. A crack that could create an iceberg the size of Delaware - and destabilize one of the largest ice shelves in the Antarctic - has branched out and begun to widen more quickly, a scientist has said. Located on the Larsen C ice shelf, the fourth largest in Antarctica, the new Antarctica crack is an offshoot of a rupture that gained notice after growing dramatically in 2014, and last year was forecast to cause the separation of a 1,900-square-mile (5,000-square-kilometer) iceberg within years.Reuters
Adelie penguins stand atop a block of melting ice on a rocky shoreline at Cape Denison, Commonwealth Bay, in East Antarctica.Reuters
The B-31 Iceberg is seen after separating from a rift in Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier in November 2013.Reuters
Melting ice shows through at a cliff face at Landsend, on the coast of Cape Denison in Antarctica.Reuters
Glaciers of Livingston Island are pictured in the Antarctica continent.Reuters
Adelie penguins stand atop ice near the French station at Dumont díUrville in East Antarctica.Reuters
A glaciologist with the British Antarctic Survey installs a pole into the Wilkins Ice Shelf as part of a satellite monitoring system.Reuters
General view of the Taylor Glacier near McMurdo Station.Reuters
Adelie penguins are pictured at Cape Denison, Commonwealth Bay, in East Antarctica.Reuters
A satellite view of Antarctica.Reuters
Ice melt shows through at a cliff face at Landsend on the coast of Cape Denison.Reuters
A Weddell seal lies atop ice at Cape Denison, Commonwealth Bay.Reuters
Penguins can be seen walking across ice at Cape Denison, Commonwealth Bay.Reuters
Icebergs grind against the shallows off the Rothera base, run by the British Antarctic Survey, on the Antarctic Peninsula.Reuters
A pair of Adelie penguins are pictured at Cape Denison, Commonwealth Bay.Reuters
The Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica, seen in 2014.Reuters
