In events that could exacerbate sea level rise over the
coming decades, stretches of ice on the coasts of Antarctica and Greenland are
at risk of rapidly cracking apart and falling into the ocean, according to new
iceberg calving simulations from the University of Michigan.
"If this starts to happen and we're right, we might be
closer to the higher end of sea level rise estimates for the next 100
years," said Jeremy Bassis, assistant professor of atmospheric, oceanic
and space sciences at the U-M College of Engineering, and first author of a
paper on the new model published in the current issue of Nature Geoscience.