The big surprise after conducting the research by scientists was exactly how much glaciers are melting in western Antarctica, a vast land mass on the Pacific Ocean side of the continent that is next to the South Pole and includes the Antarctic Peninsula.
The biggest of the western glaciers, the Pine Island Glacier, is moving 40 percent faster than it was in the 1970s, discharging water and ice more rapidly into the ocean, said Summerhayes, a member of International Polar Year's steering committee.
The Smith Glacier, also in west Antarctica, is moving 83 percent faster than in 1992, he said.
The glaciers are slipping into the sea faster because the floating ice shelf that would normally stop them — usually 650 to 980 feet (about 198 to 299 meters) thick — is melting. And the glaciers' discharge is making a significant contribution to increasing sea levels.
Some people "fear that this is the first signs of an incipient collapse of the west Antarctic ice sheet," Summerhayes said. "If the west Antarctica sheet collapses, then we're looking at a sea level rise of between 3 feet 4 inches (about 1.01 meters), to nearly 5 feet (about 1.52 meters)."
Together, all the glaciers in west Antarctica are losing a total of around 114 billion tons per year because the melting is much greater than the new snowfall, he said.
-- Click for more news in Tech Max >>
Editor:Yang Jie
