Wilkes Basin

The Wilkes Basin is a large situated generally southward of George V Coast and westward of Prince Albert Mountains in East Antarctica. The feature is approximately 1400 km long and 400 km wide. The Wilkes Basin is considered to be the largest marine-based drainage basin in East Antarctica, and may be in a state of marine ice sheet instability, caused by warm water intrusion into the shelf cavities.^[1]

History[]

It was discovered by the United States Victoria Land Traverse of 1959–1960.^[2] It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) (1961) for the proximity of the western portion of this feature to Wilkes Land, and for the explorations along George V Coast by the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–42) under Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, USN.

Deglaciation[]

A study reported in Nature Climate Change on May 5, 2014^[3] says the marine ice trapped in the basin is at risk of melting over the next 200 years. If unstopped, the East Antarctica ice would then move out into the sea over the next 5,000 to 10,000 years and could raise sea levels worldwide by three to four metres over that span of time.^[4]

References[]

^ Ricarda Winkelmann, Anders Levermann, Andy Ridgwell and Ken Caldeira (11 September 2015). "Combustion of available fossil fuel resources sufficient to eliminate the Antarctic Ice Sheet". Science Advances. 1 (8): e1500589. Bibcode:2015SciA....1E0589W. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1500589. PMC 4643791. PMID 26601273.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
^ Weihaupt, J., 1961,Geophysical Studies in Victoria Land, Antarctica,Report No. 1, Geophysical and Polar Research Center, University of Wisconsin Madison, 123 pages
^ A. Levermann; Mengel, M. (2014). "Ice plug prevents irreversible discharge from East Antarctica". Nature Climate Change. 4 (6): 451–455. Bibcode:2014NatCC...4..451M. doi:10.1038/nclimate2226. ISSN 1758-6798.
^ Heltzel, Paul (2014-05-05). "East Antarctica Melt Could Mean 10 Foot Sea-Level Rise". Seeker. Retrieved 2019-01-22.