Antarctica's bedrock rising as ice melts
Antarctica's bedrock is rising as the ice melts and this will have implications for rising sea levels and our ability to manage their effect over time.
Terry Wilson is a pioneer in using global positioning systems (GPS) to understand the loss of Antarctic ice.
'Antarctica's bedrock is rising as the ice melts and this will have implications for rising sea levels and our ability to manage their effect over time', she says.
Terry is a professor emerita in the School of Earth Sciences and senior research scientist at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at the Ohio State University. Work by Terry has been fundamental to understanding this shrinkage by measuring its impact on the bedrock beneath.
Associate Professor Rob McKay, Director of the Antarctic Research Centre, describes Terry as “a true innovator”.
“Her work recognised that Antarctica’s bedrock is slowly experiencing elevation change as a consequence of changes in the size of the ice sheet that covers the continent, as the weight of that ice sheet pushes the Earth’s crust downwards and when this ice is removed the crust slowly rebounds,” says Rob.
This week she delivered the S.T. Lee Lecture in Antarctic Studies at the Victoria University Antarctic Research Centre.
Listen to an interview with Terry Wilson on Saturday Morning by Kim Hill, RNZ here.