The Wilkes Basin is a large

subglacial basin A subglacial lake is a lake that is found under a glacier, typically beneath an ice cap or ice sheet. Subglacial lakes form at the boundary between ice and the underlying bedrock, where gravitational pressure decreases the pressure melting point o ...

situated generally southward of

George V Coast George V Coast () is that portion of the coast of Antarctica lying between Point Alden, at 148°2′E, and Cape Hudson, at 153°45′E. Portions of this coast were sighted by the US Exploring Expedition in 1840. It was explored by members of t ...

and westward of

Prince Albert Mountains The Prince Albert Mountains () are a major mountain group in Antarctica over 320 km (200 mi) long. Located in Victoria Land, they run north–south between the Priestley and Ferrar glaciers. They were named for Prince Albert, the con ...

East Antarctica East Antarctica, also called Greater Antarctica, constitutes the majority (two-thirds) of the Antarctic continent, lying on the Indian Ocean side of the continent, separated from West Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains. It lies almos ...

. The feature is approximately 1400 km long and 400 km wide. The Wilkes Basin is considered to be the largest marine-based

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

in East Antarctica, and may be in a state of marine ice sheet instability, caused by warm water intrusion into the shelf cavities.

History

It was discovered by the United States

Victoria Land Victoria Land is a region in eastern Antarctica which fronts the western side of the Ross Sea and the Ross Ice Shelf, extending southward from about 70°30'S to 78°00'S, and westward from the Ross Sea to the edge of the Antarctic Plateau. I ...

Traverse of 1959–1960. It was named by the

Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (ACAN or US-ACAN) is an advisory committee of the United States Board on Geographic Names responsible for recommending commemorative names for features in Antarctica. History The committee was established ...

(US-ACAN) (1961) for the proximity of the western portion of this feature to

Wilkes Land Wilkes Land is a large district of land in eastern Antarctica, formally claimed by Australia as part of the Australian Antarctic Territory, though the validity of this claim has been placed for the period of the operation of the Antarctic Treaty ...

, and for the explorations along George V Coast by the

United States Exploring Expedition The United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842 was an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands conducted by the United States. The original appointed commanding officer was Commodore Thomas ap Catesby ...

(1838–42) under Lieutenant

Charles Wilkes Charles Wilkes (April 3, 1798 – February 8, 1877) was an American naval officer, ship's captain, and explorer. He led the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–1842). During the American Civil War (1861–1865), he commanded ' during the ...

, USN.

Deglaciation

A study reported in

Nature Climate Change ''Nature Climate Change'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Publishing Group covering all aspects of research on global warming, the current climate change, especially its effects. It was established in 2011 as the ...

on May 5, 2014 says the marine ice trapped in the basin is at risk of melting over the next 200 years. If unstopped, the East Antarctica ice would then move out into the sea over the next 5,000 to 10,000 years and could raise sea levels worldwide by three to four metres over that span of time. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported (with low confidence) in its Sixth Assessment Report that under warming of 3°C to 5°C, the most extreme of three warming scenarios reported, substantial parts or all of Wilkes Subglacial Basin in East Antarctica could melt over several millennia. In 2022, it was included in an extensive assessment of

tipping points in the climate system In climate science, a tipping point is a critical threshold that, when crossed, leads to large and often irreversible changes in the climate system. If tipping points are crossed, they are likely to have severe impacts on human society. Tippin ...

published in the

Science Magazine ''Science'', also widely referred to as ''Science Magazine'', is the peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and one of the world's top academic journals. It was first published in 1880, ...

, where it was grouped alongside several other subglacial basins like the nearby Aurora Basin. It concluded that their collective tipping threshold lies around 3°C, with a range between 2°C and 6°C. Their collapse would then take between 500 and 10,000 years (with a median of 2000 years). The associated change in ice-albedo feedback would be expected to raise the global temperature by an additional 0.05°C.

References

Structural basins of Antarctica Landforms of George V Land {{GeorgeVLand-geo-stub

History

Deglaciation

See also

References