Ice loss in Antarctica increased by 75 percent in the last 10 years due to a speed-up in the flow of its glaciers and is now nearly as great as that observed in Greenland, according to a new, comprehensive study by UC Irvine and NASA scientists. In a first-of-its-kind study, an international team led by Eric Rignot (pictured), professor of Earth system science at UCI and a scientist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, estimated changes in Antarctica’s ice mass between 1996 and 2006 and mapped patterns of ice loss on a glacier-by-glacier basis. They detected a sharp jump in Antarctica’s ice loss, from enough ice to raise global sea level by 0.3 millimeters (.01 inches) a year in 1996, to 0.5 millimeters (.02 inches) a year in 2006. Results of the study are published in February’s issue of Nature Geoscience
Antarctic ice loss speeds up, nearly matches Greenland loss
Ice loss in Antarctica increased by 75 percent in the last 10 years due to a speed-up in the flow…
January 28, 2008