Where is the Conger Ice Shelf and what does its collapse mean?

I woke up this morning and checked the latest developments in Ukraine, and I wonder if the downing of the flag ship “Moscow” will affect the military operations in the East. I read that 220,000 people have lost their homes. The humanitarian crisis worsens every day. Then, I also read the news from NASA about the Conger ice shelf in East Antarctica. A complete different crisis evolving some 17,000 kilometers away, but with global consequences, just like the war in Ukraine.

At 14.2 million square kilometers, Antarctica is the fifth largest continent, close to twice the size of Australia.

Antarctica holds 90 percent of all fresh water on earth. The ice in the East is higher above the sea, is over one and a half kilometers thick and has been there for millions of years. The Western one, on the other hand, is partly below sea level. Changes in the sea temperature directly affects the ice.

Not only Thwaites

The Thwaites glacier is called the “doomsday glacier“, the “most dangerous” and “most important”. It is the size of England. The runoff from this alone accounts for 4 percent of the current sea level rise. If the entire glacier melts, the sea will rise by more than half a meter. Thwaites has understandingly received much attention recent years.

In 2019, NASA discovered a cavity of 57 square kilometers wide and 300 meters deep between the seabed and the ice – that is, almost the size of Manhattan. The researchers did expect to find a certain opening between the glacier and the seabed. But they did not expect that the opening would be this size. In just 3 years, 14 billion tonnes of ice have melted between the glacier and the seabed.

All of the previous collapses of ice shelves have taken place in West Antarctica, not East Antarctica, which until recently has been thought of as relatively stable.

In the NASA article, postdoctoral researcher Jonathan Wille explains the issue: “The loss of an ice shelf is problematic because it can indirectly contribute to sea level rise. Ice shelves are essentially the ‘safety band’ holding up the rest of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. When they collapse, the ice behind them can more quickly flow into the ocean. And that is what raises sea levels.”

If you want to go explore Antarctica, this interactive map is good.

If the entire Arctic melts, the world’s oceans will rise by more than 30 meters on average. 

Covor photo credit: NASA.