Subglacial volcanoes melting West Antarctic Ice sheet, say scientists

Here's a very interesting article relating the issues scientists have with correlating the contribution of climate change vs. volcanic activity to the melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet. In certain areas the ice is melting faster than predicted based on climate change alone, climate scientists are just now getting a handle on the contribution of volcanic activity to that.

I have no doubt that we'll be hearing from climate change deniers that ALL Antarctic ice loss is due to volcanic activity, I suggest we arm ourselves with facts to be ready for this. I've excerpted just a few paragraphs, the entire story is worth reading.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0610/Subglacial-volcanoes-melting-West-Antarctic-Ice-sheet-say-scientists


Now, a new study finds that these subglacial volcanoes and other geothermal "hotspots" are contributing to the melting of Thwaites Glacier, a major river of ice that flows into Antarctica's Pine Island Bay. Areas of the glacier that sit near geologic features thought to be volcanic are melting faster than regions farther away from hotspots, said Dustin Schroeder, the study's lead author and a geophysicist at the University of Texas at Austin.

Researchers have long known that volcanoes lurk under the ice of West Antarctica. This is a seismically active region, where East and West Antarctica are rifting apart. In 2013, a team of scientists even found a new volcano beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

West Antarctica is also hemorrhaging ice due to climate change, and recent studies have suggested there is no way to reverse the retreat of West Antarctic glaciers. However, the timing of this retreat is still in question, Schroeder said — it could take hundreds of years, or thousands. It's important to understand which, given that meltwater from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet contributes directly to sea level rise.

Using data from airborne radar, the researchers were able to figure out where these subglacial streams were too full to be explained by flow from upstream. The swollen streams revealed spots of unusually high melt, Schroeder said. Next, the researchers checked out the subglacial geology in the region and found that fast-melting spots were disproportionately clustered near confirmed West Antarctic volcanoes, suspected volcanoes or other presumed hotspots.