As the levels of sea ice are rising due to global warming, scientists have suggested that the sudden increase could prevent carbon dioxide from being released from the water, resulting in cooling.
According to the scientists who are studying changes in Antarctica, the rise in sea ice has the potential to cause major accumulation of carbon dioxide and lead to the next ice age.
As they suggested, an increase in the cracking of ice sheets and the melting of ice could lead to a reverse greenhouse effect and result in Earth plunging into an ice age.
While the last ice age is believed to have occurred around 2.5 million years ago, scientists continually try to understand the event better.
“One key question in the field is still what caused the Earth to periodically cycle in and out of ice ages,” Malte Jansen, University of Chicago’s assistant professor, said.
“We are pretty confident that the carbon balance between the atmosphere and ocean must have changed, but we don’t quite know how or why.”
Mr. Jansen worked together with researcher Alice Marzocchi to create computer simulations of the changes in Antarctica sea ice levels which revealed that floating ice acts as a cover that prevents carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere.
While more carbon in the atmosphere contributes to global warming, the lack of it could result in the cooling of the planet.
“What this suggests is that it’s a feedback loop,” Marzocchi, who now works at UK’s National Oceanography Center, added.
“As the temperature drops, less carbon is released into the atmosphere, which triggers more cooling.
“What surprised me is how much of this increased storage can be attributed to physical changes alone, with Antarctic sea-ice cover being the key player.”
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