Ice-Shelf Melting Around Antarctica

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Rignot, E., Jacobs, S., Mouginot, J., Scheuchl, B.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2013
• Subjects: Greenland; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet; Ice Shelf; Ice Shelves
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1235798; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1235798

Major Meltdown The ice shelves and floating ice tongues that surround Antarctica cover more than 1.5 million square kilometers—approximately the size of the entire Greenland Ice Sheet. Conventional wisdom has held that ice shelves around Antarctica lose mass mostly by iceberg calving, but recently it has become increasingly clear that melting by a warming ocean may also be important. Rignot et al. (p. 266 , published 13 June) present detailed glaciological estimates of ice-shelf melting around the entire continent of Antarctica, which show that basal melting accounts for as much mass loss as does calving.