News Excerpt:
Recently, scientists confirmed that the world's biggest iceberg is "on the move" after being stuck to the ocean floor for 37 years.
- According to the British Antarctic Survey, recent satellite images show the A23a iceberg is now moving past the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula and headed toward the Southern Ocean.
Key findings of the Octopus DNA analysis:
- The new analysis finds that geographically isolated populations of the eight-limbed sea creatures mated freely around 125,000 years ago, signalling an ice-free corridor when global temperatures were similar to today.
- The findings suggest the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is closer to collapse than previously thought, threatening 3.3-5 meters of long-term sea level rise if the world cannot hold human-caused warming to the 1.5 degrees Celsius target of the Paris Agreement.
- Genetic analyses of an Antarctic octopus show that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) collapsed during the Last Interglacial about 1,29,000 to 1,16,000 years ago when temperatures were only about 1 degree Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels.
The tipping point of future WAIS collapse:
- This study provides empirical evidence indicating that the WAIS collapsed when the global mean temperature was similar to today, suggesting that the tipping point of future WAIS collapse is close.
About Octopus:
- Octopus, in general, is any eight-armed cephalopod (octopod) mollusk of the order Octopoda.
- Octopuses are sea animals famous for their rounded bodies and bulging eyes.
- They live in all the world’s oceans but are especially abundant in warm, tropical waters.
- They are also limited by circular sea currents, or gyres, in some of their modern habitats.
- Octopuses, like their cousin, the squid, are often considered “monsters of the deep.”
- They are about 15 centimetres long, excluding the arms, and weigh around 600 grams, they lay relatively few but large eggs on the bottom of the seafloor.
