Scientists have been talking about a climate crisis looming over the planet for years.. The world is already facing incredible heat waves, droughts and wildfires, and the changes are not only affecting land, the situation is heating up in the ocean. Now scientists believe that the Earth is threatened by the eruption of at least hundreds of volcanoes, writes Live Science.

A slow feedback loop may be bubbling beneath Antarctica's vast ice sheet, it suggests.. The continent, divided from east to west by the Transantarctic Mountains, shelters volcanic giants such as Mount Erebus and its famous lava lake under a blanket of ice.

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Researchers have also discovered at least 100 less visible volcanoes dotting Antarctica. Many of them are clustered along the western coast of the continent. Some of these volcanoes rise above the surface, but others are hidden under several kilometers of Antarctic ice sheet.

It's no secret that climate change is melting ice sheets, raising sea levels. Melting glaciers are also reducing pressure on rocks, which scientists say has more localized effects. For example, it has previously been proven that melting ice cover increases the volcanic activity of volcanoes previously hidden under ice - this was the case in other parts of the globe.

In a new study, scientists ran more than 400 computer simulations to examine how ice loss affects Antarctica's buried volcanoes.. The results indicate that the gradual loss of Antarctica's ice may increase the number and size of subglacial eruptions.

The main reason is that the loss of ice reduces the pressure on magma chambers hidden below the surface, causing the compressed magma to expand. This expansion increases pressure on the walls of the magma chamber and increases the likelihood of eruptions.

The researchers also discovered that some magma chambers contain large amounts of volatile gases that would normally dissolve in the magma.. As the magma cools and the pressure on the surface decreases, these gases escape from solution, increasing the pressure in the magma chamber. Such pressure would mean melting Antarctic ice would likely accelerate the eruption of at least 100 volcanoes, scientists say..

Eruptions of volcanoes hidden under ice may not be noticeable on the surface, but will have consequences for the ice sheet. Scientists believe that eruptions from such volcanoes could increase the melting of ice deep below the surface, which would inevitably weaken the ice sheet as a whole.. This development could trigger a low-pressure feedback from the surface, which would trigger a series of eruptions..

Good news: this process is incredibly slow and can take hundreds of years..

Bad news: theoretical feedback could be triggered even if humanity succeeds in reducing anthropogenic warming of the Earth. The Antarctic ice sheet was much thicker during the last ice age, and it is possible that the same process of magma and gas discharge and expansion may have contributed to past eruptions.

Previously, Focus wrote that something is breaking off huge pieces of ice from Antarctica: scientists are sure that climate has nothing to do with it.