Building walls on the seabed could be the next step in tackling climate change, scientists say. Researchers believe that by erecting barriers of stone and sand, the latter can stop the sliding of underwater glaciers into the sea, where they begin to collapse.
Of course, building such walls would be a daunting task, but building them could delay the effects of climate change. Such structures are presumably not that difficult to build.
The idea of scientists from the Geophysical Research Department of Princeton University in the United States is to stop further melting of glaciers by preventing warm water from penetrating to their base. Scientists studying the effects of warmer waters on climate around the world believe that the ever-increasing ocean temperatures may be the main cause of underwater melting of the bases of ice shelves.
"We imagine very simple structures, just piles of gravel or sand on the ocean floor," said Michael Volovik, one of the researchers who described such plans "as real."
Volovik and his team used computer simulations to investigate the likely impact of these structures on the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica - 80-100 km across, it is one of the widest glaciers in the world. In addition, he is known for the record speed of sliding in the Amundsen Sea, which is about 2 kilometers per year.
Scientists have calculated that if each of the constructed structures were about 300 meters high, it would take from 0.1 to 1.5 cubic kilometers of aggregate.
According to the data obtained from computer simulations, the construction of such a structure would lead to a 30 percent probability of preventing the fault of the western Antarctic ice sheet.
Of course, the creation of more complex structures on the seabed is difficult to accomplish in the harsh conditions of the southern polar regions.
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Instead, a more achievable result would be a small underwater wall that has a 70 percent chance of success by blocking the flow of warm water to the base of the Thwaites Ice Shelf.
The results of the study were published in the journal of the European Geosciences Union The Cryosphere.
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