East Antarctic Ice Sheet

Consequently, greenhouse gases actually trap heat in the middle atmosphere and reduce its flow towards the surface while the temperature inversion lasts.

[4] Due to these factors, East Antarctica had experienced slight cooling for decades while the rest of the world warmed as the result of climate change.

[7][8] In the early 2000s, cooling over East Antarctica seemingly outweighing warming over the rest of the continent was frequently misinterpreted by the media and occasionally used as an argument for climate change denial.

[13][14] for instance, GRACE satellite data indicated East Antarctica mass gain of 60 ± 13 billion tons per year between 2002 and 2010.

[22] These high elevations are an important reason for why the ice sheet is the driest, windiest, and coldest place on Earth.

[5][6][4] The only ice-free areas of East Antarctica are where there is too little annual precipitation to form an ice layer, which is the case in the so-called McMurdo Dry Valleys of the Southern Victoria Land.

Within EAIS, the United Kingdom, France, Norway, Australia, Chile and Argentina all claim a portion (sometimes overlapping) as their own territory.

It was initially unstable, and did not grow to consistently cover the entire continent until 32.8 million years ago, when the CO2 levels had further declined to below 600 ppm.

[26] Contrastingly, the smaller West Antarctic ice sheet is thought to have largely collapsed as recently as during the Eemian period, about 125,000 years ago.

[35] A 2002 paper by Peter Doran suggested that the cooling over East Antarctica outweighed warming of the rest of the continent.

This happened due to the local changes in Southern Annular Mode the dominant climate variability pattern over the Antarctica.

[7][8] The limited warming and already low temperatures over East Antarctica mean that as of early 2020s, the majority of observational evidence shows it continuing to gain mass.

[13] Because it is currently gaining mass, East Antarctic Ice Sheet is not expected to play a role in the 21st century sea level rise.

[46] Neither Wilkes nor the other subglacial basins were lost entirely, but estimates suggest that they would be committed to disappearance once the global warming reaches 3 °C (5.4 °F) - the plausible temperature range is between 2 °C (3.6 °F) and 6 °C (11 °F).

Location and diagram of Lake Vostok , a prominent subglacial lake beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.
South Pole research station.
Polar climatic temperature changes throughout the Cenozoic , showing glaciation of Antarctica toward the end of the Eocene , thawing near the end of the Oligocene and subsequent Miocene re-glaciation.
Parts of East Antarctica (marked in blue) are currently the only place on Earth to regularly experience negative greenhouse effect . At greater warming levels, this effect is likely to disappear due to increasing concentrations of water vapor over Antarctica [ 32 ]
East Antarctica had demonstrated cooling in the 1980s and 1990s, even as the West Antarctica warmed (left-hand side). Changes in atmospheric patterns had reversed the trend in 2000s and 2010s (right-hand side) [ 7 ]
Aerial view of ice flows at Denman Glacier, one of the relatively few glaciers in the East Antarctica known to be losing mass. [ 38 ]
If countries cut greenhouse gas emissions significantly (lowest trace), then sea level rise by 2100 can be limited to 0.3–0.6 m (1–2 ft). [ 44 ] If the emissions accelerate rapidly (top trace), sea levels could rise 5 m ( 16 + 1 ⁄ 2 ft) by 2300. This would involve ice loss from the EAIS. [ 44 ]
Retreat of Cook Glacier – a key part of the Wilkes Basin – during the Eemian ~120,000 years ago and an earlier Pleistocene interglacial ~330,000 years ago. These retreats would have added about 0.5 m (1 ft 8 in) and 0.9 m (2 ft 11 in) to sea level rise. [ 46 ]