Global warming could alter the shape of the Earth

Climate change is causing more than just warmer oceans and erratic weather. According to scientists, a new research has found that it also has the capacity to alter the shape of the planet EARTH. In a five year study, researchers compared glaciers in PATAGONIA and in the ANTARCTIC PENINSULA. They found that glaciers in warmer PATAGONIA moved faster and caused more erosion than those in ANTARCTICA, as warmer temperatures and melting ice helped lubricate the bed of the glaciers. The lead author MICHELE KOPPES, assistant professor at the University of British Columbia said that "WE FOUND THAT GLACIERS ERODE 100 TO 1000 TIMES FASTER IN PATAGONIA THAN THEY DO IN ANTARCTICA". "Antarctica is warming up and as it moves to temperature above 0 degree Celsius, the glaciers are all going to start moving faster. We are already seeing that ice sheets are starting to move faster and should become more erosive, digging deeper valleys and shedding more sediment into the oceans" said Koppes. 
Faster moving glaciers deposit more sediment in downstream basins and on the continental shelves, potentially impacting fisheries, dams and access to clean freshwater in mountain communities. " The polar continental margins in particular are hotspots of biodiversity, If you are pumping out that much more sediment into the water, you're changing the aquatic habitat" said Koppes. With more than 4 degrees Celsius of warming over the last 50 years, the glaciers are on the brink of a major shift that will see them flowing up to 100 times faster if the climate shifts above 0 degrees Celsius. This study was published in the Journal Nature.