Antarctica has long been considered the coldest place on our planet, but now it cannot be called that. It is believed that the average annual temperature on the snow-covered continent should be approximately -57 degrees Celsius. However, on February 6, 2020, a record high air temperature of 18.3 degrees Celsius was recorded in Antarctica. These data were provided by the staff of the Esperanza research station, which is located in the far north of the Antarctic Peninsula. The warm weather lasted for about a week and it caused quite a lot of snow to melt. The consequences of the record air temperature are especially noticeable on Eagle Island, the snow cover of which has greatly melted.
The consequences of warming in Antarctica were discussed in the scientific publication ScienceAlert. Eagle Island is located close to the part of the Antarctic Peninsula known as Graham Land. Back in late 2019, the island was covered with snow and ice, but now, due to the sudden warming of the air, it looks like an ordinary piece of damp land with snow-covered areas. In addition, ponds of melt water have formed in its center, which cannot drain into the sea.
The consequences of warming in Antarctica
The consequences of an increase in air temperature in Antarctica are clearly visible in the images sent by the Landsat 8 satellite. They clearly show how in just a dozen days Eagle Island lost a huge part of the ice cover. It is reported that the island has lost about 10 centimeters of snow and ice during this short period of time. Glaciologist Mauri Pelto, who has been studying natural ice for many years, says that such rapid melting of ice and snow has never been seen in Antarctica before. At least, he had never encountered such phenomena before.
As a rule, Greenland ice is melting the most and most noticeably. We were convinced of this back in 2015, when a group of scientists led by Eric Rigno from the University of California came to this conclusion. Moreover, some scientists are confident that due to the gradual increase in the temperature of the Earth's air, Greenland may soon completely lose its ice cover. This threatens that the level of the World Ocean will rise greatly, which will harm both people and animals. But people will see places that have never been touched by a human.
Eagle Island, captured by Landsat 8.
Glaciologist Mauri Pelto also stressed that the scary thing is not that the ice on Eagle Island melted so quickly, but that such events are happening more often. The previous temperature record in Antarctica was recorded on March 24, 2015, when the air warmed up to 17.5 degrees Celsius. In 2020, the air temperature was as much as 18.3 degrees Celsius. No one knows what surprises nature will bring us in the future. Perhaps new temperature records await us, and the melting of ice and snow on Eagle Island is just a flower.
Promotional video:
In general, scientists from the University of California at Davis believe that nothing good awaits people in the future. In their opinion, humanity will be boiled alive, like "frogs in boiling water."
Ramis Ganiev