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Antarctic Ice Sheet Is Melting Rapidly
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Mar 02, 2006 10:12pm |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - Washington Post |
| News Date | Saturday, March 4, 2006 04:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | New Study Warns Of Rising Sea Levels
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 3, 2006; Page A01
The Antarctic ice sheet is losing as much as 36 cubic miles of ice a year in a trend that scientists link to global warming, according to a new paper that provides the first evidence that the sheet's total mass is shrinking significantly.
The new findings, which are being published today in the journal Science, suggest that global sea level could rise substantially over the next several centuries.
It is one of a slew of scientific papers in recent weeks that have sought to gauge the impact of climate change on the world's oceans and lakes. Just last month two researchers reported that Greenland's glaciers are melting into the sea twice as fast as previously believed, and a separate paper in Science today predicts that by the end of this century lakes and streams on one-fourth of the African continent could be drying up because of higher temperatures.
The new Antarctic measurements, using data from two NASA satellites called the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), found that the amount of water pouring annually from the ice sheet into the ocean -- equivalent to the amount of water the United States uses in three months -- is causing global sea level to rise by 0.4 millimeters a year. The continent holds 90 percent of the world's ice, and the disappearance of even its smaller West Antarctic ice sheet could raise worldwide sea levels by an estimated 20 feet. |
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