Rising Melting

Antarctic ice sheet is shrinking Source Article

The Antarctic ice sheet, which contains 90 per cent of Earth's ice, has lost significant mass in recent years, according to a new study. Using data collected from a pair of satellites orbiting Earth in tandem, researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder have concluded that the ice sheet is annually losing up to 36 cubic miles of ice, or 152 cubic km. The city of Los Angeles uses about 1 cubic mile of fresh water a year. Antarctica - the fifth largest continent and twice the size of Australia -- contains 70 per cent of Earth's fresh water resources. The ice sheet, which covers 98 per cent of the continent, has an average thickness of about 6,500 feet. According to the study, which appears in the latest online issue of Science Express, the bulk of the loss is occurring in the West Antarctic icesheet. The melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet alone - which is about eight times smaller in volume than the East Antarctic ice sheet - would raise global sea levels by more than 20 feet (6 metres), according to researchers from the British Antarctic Survey. The study disputes the most recent Inter- governmental Panel on Climate Change assessment, completed in 2001, which predicted the Antarctic ice sheet would gain mass in the 21st century because of increased precipitation in a warming climate.