Ice is being lost from vast portions of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet that previously seemed protected from extensive melting. Until now, large-scale ice loss from the continent had been detected only on a narrow peninsula that has warmed rapidly over the past decade.
Eric Rignot at the University of California, Irvine and co-workers measured the amount of ice released into the ocean from Antarctic glaciers by mapping 85 percent of the coastline using European, Japanese and Canadian satellite radar data. They discovered a 75 percent increase in the glacial discharge of ice into the ocean from parts of West Antarctica in the past ten years, despite land temperatures remaining fairly stable. East Antarctica showed fewer losses, although the researchers noted thinning of the ice sheet in potentially unstable areas. They found little change in the accumulation of snowfall on Antarctica over the same period.
Escalating ice loss may be caused by warming of the oceans surrounding Antarctica. The relatively warm Antarctic Circumpolar Current has been migrating southward in recent decades, reaching the edges of the continent and destabilizing the ice shelves. The rapid retreat of the Antarctic ice sheet shows no sign of abating and could lead to greater rises in sea level than currently predicted.
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Newton, A. Accelerating ice loss. Nature Clim Change 1, 16 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/climate.2008.8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/climate.2008.8
