Watchpost Antarctica
Sea Level Rise
The site of our watchpost is the Antarctic Peninsula which is the northernmost part of the ice covered continent. The gigantic ice sheets meet the antarctic ocean, but they are only the leading edge of a continent that contains more than 60 percent of all fresh water on the Earth. If they breakaway completely and the continent's land locked ice melts, enough water to rise the sea level by 58 meters (190 ft) will soon flood the worlds coasts.[1]
"Cracks and calving of ice from the front of an ice shelf are normal. Shelves are fed by glaciers and ice streams coming from the interior of the continent. They advance into the ocean until a calving event takes place. The shelf front retreats and then advances again. The whole cycle can occur over the span of a few decades, but calving that happens faster than a shelf can re-advance can mean trouble for an ice shelf. For example, large and frequent calving events at Larsen B preceded that shelf’s final period of rapid disintegration, which occurred in just six weeks in 2002. Whether Larsen C will respond in a similar way remains to be seen, but that’s one reason why scientists plan to make observations before and after the next calving event."
Nasa Earth Observatory on Larsen-c Ice Shelf's immanent breakaway
The Floating Outpost
The watchpost is made from icebergs of the disintegrating ice shelf. Held together with rusting weathering steel. When the ice shelf finally calves and begins its long trip northward, the watchpost will follow. Both will degrade as the water warms and they become forgotten.
