Scientists make alarming discovery in samples from last Ice Age: 'You can't model the future unless you understand what happened'

Scientists in Ireland are studying the ancient British-Irish Ice Sheet in an attempt to better understand the future, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reported. Their work involves mapping and dating the ice sheet's retreat, which improves researchers' knowledge of present-day ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica.

What's happening?

The British-Irish Ice Sheet covered two-thirds of Britain and Ireland during the last Ice Age, some 18,000 to 35,000 years ago, the Bulletin explained. However, warming temperatures and rising seas caused it to melt, and the ice sheet disappeared entirely about 11,300 years ago.

Researchers have been studying the ancient ice sheet for over 100 years. Irish scholars Sam Kelley and Margaret Jackson are among the latest scientists to study it, reconstructing the history of the British-Irish Ice Sheet to improve existing climate models since the same factors that destroyed it threaten current ice sheets.

"You can't model the future unless you understand what happened once," Kelley said to the Bulletin.

Helen Dulfer is working with Kelley and Jackson to collect and analyze rock samples from the ice sheet's historic range. These samples allow researchers to create more accurate maps of the ice sheet. "They highlight what's missing," Dulfer said.

What does studying ancient ice sheets reveal?

Studies of historic ice sheets, such as Kelley and Jackson's, allow researchers to learn what caused them to collapse. Ice sheets from the past reveal how much warming and rising seas present ice sheets can withstand before suffering the same fate.

Currently, there are just two ice sheets on Earth in Antarctica and Greenland, and both are disappearing rapidly, according to satellite imagery from NASA. The Antarctic ice sheet is melting at a rate of 136 billion tons per year, while Greenland is losing 267 billion tons of ice per year.

The loss of this ice has consequences around the world, and sea levels could increase by more than 200 feet if ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland melted completely, according to the Bulletin. While rising seas threaten coastal communities, warming temperatures are already contributing to deadlier heat waves, extended droughts, and more extreme weather events.

What's being done about melting ice sheets?

While studies like this one bring foreboding news about the future, they are important in improving our understanding of it. They also help our ability to mitigate and adapt to the consequences of melting ice and rising temperatures.

Educating yourself about critical climate issues can also empower you to take action regarding them, and you can explore TCD's guide to do so.

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