Antarctic Ice's Future Still Mired in Its Murky Past

Permanent Link:: http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI15061908/00001

Material Information

Subjects / Keywords:: Climate change ( lcsh )
Sea level rise ( lcsh )
Antarctica ( lcsh )
Ice sheets ( lcsh )

Abstract:: Glaciologists are worried, deeply worried. They clearly see that tongues of ice draining Greenland’s glacial stores into the sea have lately sped up and the ice is melting faster than ever. The great island has clearly been losing ice faster than snow can replenish it, and the defi cit is raising seas worldwide. In the south, the ice sheet of West Antarctica is in the same boat. Warming air and sea seem to be behind both net losses of ice. But what of the ice of East Antarctica, more than eight times the mass of either Greenland’s or West Antarctica’s? A new reanalysis by two NASA scientists of the three standard ice-monitoring techniques slashes the estimated loss from East Antarctica, challenging the large, headline-grabbing losses reported lately for the continent as a whole. Although not the fi nal word, the new study shows that researchers still have a lot to learn about the vast East Antarctic Ice Sheet. ( English )

Source Institution:: Florida International University
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