Warm waters tripled the amount of ice lost in these Antarctic glaciers — and that’s bad for sea level rise
Between 2008 and 2012, warmer than usual waters caused four glaciers in Western Antarctica to flow toward the sea faster than any other glacier on the continent. The glaciers also lost more than three times the amount of ice than usual, according to new research. All these changes are bad news for Antarctica — and us. As grounded glaciers melt, sea levels around the world rise.
The four glaciers described in the study, published last week in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, are located in Marguerite Bay, on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula. This is the northernmost area of the continent, and the one most susceptible to rising temperatures. Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) found that 1 to 2…
