Antartic Sea Ice

You are probably tired or hearing “ice sheets are melting-end of the world”, BUT there’s something you are not aware of, and that is the strange opposite process at Antarctica. Scientists have found that ice sheets at the North Pole (Arctic) are being melted, but those at Antarctica are expanding northward 1 percent per year (approximately 100,000 square km) three different theories have been proposed and those are: Ozone layer, Southern Ocean Stratification, Flooded Sea Ice turned into snow ice.

Ozone Layer

In the 1980’s scientists discovered that the emissions of refrigerants called chlorofluorocarbons caused the ozone layer depletion. This ozone depletion caused that another atmosphere layer called stratosphere, lowered its temperature (cooled down approximately from 2 to 6 degrees Celsius). This cooling process caused changes between the stratosphere and lower layers of the atmosphere, being these changes projected as fierce winds at Antarctica. Meaning that colder, fiercer, stormier and faster winds are rushing over the waters encircling Antarctica (specifically a location called the Ross Sea) this produces areas of open water (polynyas) that are ideal for sea ice production.

Stratified Southern Ocean

Oceans are often warmed by the normal flow of water, convection causes hot water (found at bottom layers) to get mixed with fresh water (found at upper layers) which then causes heat from bottom layers to come up to the surface. Jinlun Zhang, an oceanographer at the University of Washington developed a software that allows him to reproduce this convection process at water currents, and he found out that if air is hot this convection process would not take place at the same rate. Since fresh water is less dense and less apt to mix with the heavier, saltier, and warmer water below, the layer at the ocean’s surface could become more stratified and mix less. This, in turn, would reduce the amount of heat flowing upward, allowing surface ice to expand.

Flooded Sea Ice Turns Snow to Ice

Accumulation of snow ice presses down the sea water, its weight causes this snow to submerge, then as current flows on top of this snow layer, the snow gradually freezes until it is completely frozen and an ice sheet is formed. Studies suggest that at least 38 percent of the sea ice is made through this process.

So as we can see there are also other side effects of our pollution, but we should take in consideration that the rate at which Ice Sea is recovered is much slower than the one at which it melts due to our pollution.PLEASE take care of our OWN planet, try not to pollute otherwise we would have to face terrible effects such as disastrous hurricanes PLEASE.

Ignacio Morales