Much surprising but worrying news that came to be known recently is that the ice sheet in West Antarctica is losing ice at a rapid rate. The rate is worrying: the amount of ice lost is equivalent to mount Everest every two years, according to new research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. This rate is much faster than what the scientists previously though it would be.
When compared to ten years back, glaciers of West Antarctica are melting three times faster. Scientists say that if this melting rate continues, the entire ice sheet will disappear in almost 200 years resulting in an average increase of 16 feet in the sea level.
The astonishing news was studied and then analyzed by the scientists of University of California and NASA. They collected all the data from the years 1992-2013 and then concluded that within Antarctica, there is a region, Amundsen Sea embayment, which is melting even faster every year. They found out that it is losing approximately 83 gigatons of mass or 91.5 billion U.S. tons, per year. And that rate has increased by an average of 6.7 billion tons every year since 1992.
Currently, it is estimated by the UN projections that global sea levels could raise from less than one foot to around three feet, by 2100. But most of these estimations, as pointed put by NASA, does not include the possibility of great amount of ice loss in Antarctica.
Antarctic ice loss is by far the most uncertain factor in predicting a future sea level rise, the scientists stressed.
“We have an excellent observing network now. It’s critical that we maintain this network to continue monitoring the changes,” Velicogna said, “because the changes are proceeding very fast.”
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