Researchers: Antarctic Ice Shelves Melting Spiked In The Last Decade

Some researchers have undertaken a big effort to monitor the rate of Antarctic ice selves melting, and what they've found again shows that the ice is melting faster than ever before, particularly in the last decade when a spike in the rate was observed. Such information comes from a recent study detailing work done by a research team headed by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. According to the newly published study, the rate of ice shelf melting in some areas has increased by 18-percent over the past nearly 20 years, and there's no signs of that slowing down.

According to Scripps researcher Fernando Paolo, the total observed ice shelf's volume is on the decline, and this reduction in mass has accelerated over this past decade. The information was gathered, in part, by looking at data from three orbital missions rather than data from a single satellite.

This provides far more data in total, some of which can be overlapped from one mission to the next, allowing for more extensive comparisons and contrasting to monitor volume changes over the years. Because of this, some previous conclusions have been further verified as correct, chief among them being that before 2003, the ice shelves had few changes in how thick they were.

Moving on from 2003, however, the volume stopped growing (for the East Antarctic Ice shelf, at least), and this contributed to losses from other areas, making for a much larger overall decline. In the grand scheme of things, this project will help with future efforts related to climate change, including projections on rising sea levels.

SOURCE: Nature World News