Environment

Beneath the great white continent, several kilometers away, numerous active volcanoes, such as Mount Erebus, could accelerate the melting of the ice cap. Let's take a closer look at this huge smouldering fire. 

While the ice cap is currently being disrupted by global warming, leading to accelerated melting of glaciers, sub-glacial volcanoes may be erupting. 

According to the numerical simulations carried out by a team of researchers, the continued thinning of this thick layer of ice could have an impact on the size and number of sub-glacial eruptions, which could, as they increase, initiate a hellish chain reaction, points out Futura-sciences.  

If the pressure exerted by the ice cap on volcanoes, and more specifically on the magma reservoirs, decreases, the melting of glaciers could cause the magma to decompress, leading to the formation of gas bubbles. As Futura-sciences points out, the pressure inside the magma chamber (or reservoir) would then rise, causing magma to flow back up into the volcanic vents and trigger the start of an eruption. It's precisely this increase in the frequency of sub-glacial eruptions that would be responsible for accelerating the melting of the cap, its thinning and hence new eruptions... and so on. 

This phenomenon, which will play out over hundreds of years, doesn't give rise to fears of a catastrophic scenario, but does demonstrate the enormous impact of human activity on the Earth's mechanisms, however great they may be.

(MH with AsD - Source: Futura-sciences - Illustration: Unsplash)