Dan Lowry – The Conversation

Hugh Chittock/Antarctica New Zealand

April 23, 2024

West Antarctica’s ice sheet was smaller thousands of years ago – here’s why this matters today

Dan Lowry, GNS Science and Holly Kyeore Han, NASA

Some 7,000 years ago, West Antarctica’s ice sheet retreated, most likely driven by warmer ocean currents slipping under the ice. This could happen again – unless we cut emissions fast.

Shutterstock/Farjana.rahman

November 13, 2023

We can still prevent the collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet – if we act fast to keep future warming in check

Richard Levy, GNS Science; Dan Lowry, GNS Science; Denise Kulhanek, University of Kiel; Gavin Dunbar, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington; Huw Joseph Horgan, ETH Zurich; Molly Patterson, Binghamton University, State University of New York; Nick Golledge, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington, and Tina van de Flierdt, Imperial College London

Seafloor sediments from beneath the Ross Ice Shelf represent an archive of warmer periods in Earth’s past. An ambitious international project aims to uncover what we can learn about our hotter future.

Shutterstock

October 15, 2021

Widespread collapse of West Antarctica’s ice sheet is avoidable if we keep global warming below 2°C

Dan Lowry, GNS Science; Mario Krapp, GNS Science, and Nick Golledge, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

A new modelling approach improves projections of Antarctica’s future ice loss. It shows a low-emissions scenario would avoid the collapse of West Antarctica’s ice sheet and limit sea-level rise.

Since the last ice age, the ice sheet retreated over a thousand kilometres in the Ross Sea region, more than any other region on the continent. Rich Jones

August 14, 2019

New research shows that Antarctica’s largest floating ice shelf is highly sensitive to warming of the ocean

Dan Lowry, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

New research shows that ocean and air temperatures both contributed to the melting of Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf in the past, but melting from below by a warming ocean became more important over time.

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