If the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) collapsed, global sea level would likely rise between 11 and 16 feet. Such an enormous increase would cripple the planet, considering a 3-foot rise in ocean level ispredicted to flood 861,000 square miles of land and affect 145 million people.

So, what are the chances that one of the world’s largest ice sheets will buckle catastrophically? According to a new study in the journal Global Change Biology, they are better than scientists ever thought.

Using the distribution of tiny marine organisms called Bryozoans (shown to the left), scientists discovered evidence for a surprisingly recent collapse in the WAIS.

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