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Environmental News: Ice loss in Antarctica increases


Ice loss in Antarctica increased by 75 percent in the last 10 years due to a speed-up in the flow of its glaciers, according to a new study by NASA and university scientists.

In a first-of-its-kind study, an international team of researchers estimated changes in Antarctica's ice mass between 1996 and 2006 and mapped patterns of ice loss on a glacier-by-glacier basis. The team detected a sharp jump in Antarctica's ice loss, from 112 (plus or minus 91) gigatonnes a year in 1996 to 196 (plus or minus 92) gigatonnes a year in 2006. A gigatonne is one billion metric tons, or more than 2.2 trillion pounds. This produced enough ice to raise global sea level by 0.3 millimeters (.01 inches) a year in 1996, to 0.5 millimeters (.02 inches) a year in 2006.

The study suggests the losses are caused by ongoing and past acceleration of glaciers into the sea. This is mostly a result of warmer ocean waters, which bathe the buttressing floating sections of glaciers, causing them to thin or collapse.

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