Which Ice sheet was it?

During the last warm period on Earth, the world's oceans were almost 20 feet higher than what they are today thanks to melting ice caps of Greenland and Antarctica.

Most of the scientific community assumed that the Greenland ice sheet was the main contributor to this rise in sea level about 125,000 years ago.

But new results from a University of Wisconsin-Madison associate professor of geosciences, using mud from the ocean floor indicates that the Greenland ice sheet may be more stable than the Antarctic ice sheet.

Excerpts from the study:

"'The sediment analysis indicates that" (Greenland) ice sheet seems more stable than some of the larger retreat values ​​people have presented "
According to lead researcher Anders Carlson.

The models in accordance with the new findings indicate that the melting Greenland ice was responsible for a sea level rise of 1.6 to 2.2 meters - at most, about half of the minimum of four meters total increase.

Even after controlling for other Arctic ice and the thermal expansion of warmer water, the bulk of the difference must come from a melting icecap in Antarctica, Carlson says.

"The implication of our results is that West Antarctica was probably much smaller than it is now," and responsible for many more of the sea level rise than many scientists have thought, he says. "If West Antarctica collapsed, which means it is more unstable than we expected, that's very scary." "

The study was published in the July 29 issue of Science.

This post first appeared on Accuweather.com.

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