I wonder what climate science ‘skeptics’ are going to make out of this.
It’s certainly a reminder that there are still surprises waiting for us.
But it just as certainly doesn’t change a thing about our understanding.
Only that future sea level rise may have yet more surprises in store for humanity, all on the plus side of the equation
Scientists find 91 new volcanoes under Antarctic ice sheet The volcanoes were not previously identified because their tops do not break through the surface of the Antarctic ice sheet. By Alice Udale-Smith, News Reporter http://news.sky.com/story/scientists-find-91-new-volcanoes-under-antarctic-ice-sheet-10986863 The largest volcanic region on Earth has been found thousands of meters below the surface of the ice sheet covering Antarctica. A survey of the region of the West Antarctic Rift System has revealed 91 new volcanoes hidden within the ice. The new volcanoes are on top of the 47 whose peaks are above the ice and were already known about. ...
Robin McKie Saturday 12 August 2017 18.11 EDT https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/12/scientists-discover-91-volcanos-antarctica . . . The discovery is particularly important because the activity of these volcanoes could have crucial implications for the rest of the planet. If one erupts, it could further destabilise some of the region’s ice sheets, which have already been affected by global warming. Meltwater outflows into the Antarctic ocean could trigger sea level rises. “We just don’t know about how active these volcanoes have been in the past," Bingham said.But all that doesn't have anything to do with another ominous Antarctic indication that it is later than we think.
'Stable' Antarctic ice sheet may have started collapsing, scientists say Southern Antarctic Peninsula ice sheet losing ice 8,500 times the mass of the Great Pyramid of Giza every year, satellite data shows Karl Mathiesen Thursday 21 May 2015 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/may/21/stable-antarctic-ice-sheet-may-have-started-collapsing-scientists-say A vast slab of Antarctic ice that was previously stable may have started to collapse, according to new analysis of satellite data. Research published in the journal Science on Thursday found the Southern Antarctic Peninsula (SAP) ice sheet is losing ice into the ocean at a rate of 56 gigatons each year – ... The sheet’s thickness has remained stable since satellite observations began in 1992. But Professor Jonathan Bamber of Bristol university, who co-authored the study, said that around 2009 it very suddenly began to thin by an average of 42cm each year. Some areas had fallen by up to 4m. “It hasn’t been going up, it hasn’t been going down – until 2009. Then it just seemed to pass some kind of critical threshold and went over a cliff and it’s been losing mass at a pretty much constant, rather large, rate," said Bamber