Antarctica Ice Shelves are Melting at an Accelerated and Alarming Rate

It turns out that Antarctica's floating ice shelves may have recently thinned by as much as 18 percent in several areas over just two decades. The new findings reveal that the ice sheet is quickly disappearing due to climate change.

Data from nearly two decades of satellite missions have revealed that the decline of this ice isn't just occurring, but is also accelerating. The researchers constructed a new high-resolution record of ice shelf thickness based on satellite radar altimetry missions of the European Space Agency from 1994 to 2012. Merging data from three overlapping mission, the scientists identified changes in ice thickness that took place over more than a decade.

So by how much is ice shelf thickness declining? Total ice shelf volume across Antarctica changed very little from 1994 to 2003. However, it then declined rapidly. West Antarctic ice shelves lost ice throughout the entire observation period, with accelerated loss in the most recent decade. Earlier gains in the East Antarctic ice shelf volume actually stopped after 2003.

"The ice shelves buttress the flow from grounded ice into the ocean, and that flow impacts sea-level rise, so that's a key concern from our new study," said Helen Amanda Fricker, one of the researchers, in a news release.

Ice shelves do not contribute directly to sea-level rise, but they do have an important indirect effect. Under current rates of thinning, in fact, the ice shelves restraining the unstable sector of West Antarctica could lose as much as half of their volume within the next 200 years.

Currently, the researchers are continue their studies on the ice loss. They hope to look at the causes behind the changes in ice shelf volume, including the effects of the atmosphere and the ocean.

"We're looking into connections between El Niño events in the tropical Pacific and changes in the Antarctic ice sheet," said Fernando Paolo, one of the researchers. "It's very far apart but we know that these teleconnections exist. That may ultimately allow us to improve our models for predicting future ice loss."

The findings are published in the journal Science.

For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).