Featured Image Credit: Josh Landis, U.S. Arctic Program, Public Domain / REDA / Contributor / Getty
The melting of ice across Antarctica could soon cause over 100 hidden volcanoes to erupt underneath the surface in an event that would be devastating for the region.
Climate change is having devastating effects on the world, and you only need to look as far as mass wildfires in Los Angeles to understand how dangerous and destructive it can be.
Alongside large scale fires caused by dehydrated land, the increased temperature of Earth is also notable causing ice to melt in areas like Antarctica, leading to a rising sea level that could eventually engulf the planet if rates continue.
Perhaps an unexpected side effect of this melting for many however is the interaction with Antarctica's many 'hidden' volcanoes that exist underneath the surface, sitting several hundreds of kilometers below the frozen surface.
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Continued melting of ice is predicted to lead to the eruption of these volcanoes, with over 100 spanning the region - many of which are centralized in the western areas.
Moreover, if eruptions are triggered within these volcanoes it could lead to a devastating feedback loop of continued melting that would be devastating not just for Antarctica but the world as a whole.
As reported by Live Science, activity is predicted to increase in subglacial volcanoes when pressure is reduced on magma chambers, causing to expand and eventually erupt.
Furthermore, one scientific study in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems indicates: "The reduced weight from the melting ice above also allows dissolved water and carbon dioxide to form gas bubbles, which causes pressure to build up in the magma chamber and may eventually trigger an eruption."
Many have likened this reaction to that of a cork popping on a well-shaken bottle of champagne, as the pressure built up inside the subglacial volcanoes causes its magma chambers to explode.
It is almost an inevitability then that eruptions will happen once the ice has melted enough, and global trends certainly aren't doing a lot to curb the accelerated heating process.
Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of this reaction is that theories suggest that the process would continue to work away and eventually lead to further eruptions even if Earth managed to prevent further increases to global temperature - otherwise known as anthropogenic warming.
"We find that the removal of an ice sheet above a volcano results in more abundant and larger eruptions," details the study by A. N. Coonin et al. "which may potentially hasten the melting of overlying ice through complex feedback mechanics."
As per the Global Volcanism Program only one volcano in Antarctica has erupted in the past two decades - Erebus - which began its eruption in 1972 and continues to this day, yet it might not be too long until many more become active.
