The West Antarctic potential instability isn't like a lake discharge. It's much more like a giant calving glacier retreating to the sea level line. Jacobshavn writ large. Calving glaciers hug undersea ridges; as they retreat behind a ridge there is nothing holding them back until they retreat to the next ridge or to sea level.
This can potentially be spectacular, and is probably the mechanism for the earlier meltwater pulse. Re Jacobshavn: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakobshavn_Isbr%C3%A6 mt --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Global Change ("globalchange") newsgroup. Global Change is a public, moderated venue for discussion of science, technology, economics and policy dimensions of global environmental change. Posts will be admitted to the list if and only if any moderator finds the submission to be constructive and/or interesting, on topic, and not gratuitously rude. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalchange -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
