Volume loss from Antarctic ice shelves is accelerating

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Paolo, Fernando S., Fricker, Helen A., Padman, Laurie
• Other Authors: NASA
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2015
• Subjects: Antarctic; Buttress; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Shelves
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa0940; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.aaa0940

Disappearing faster around the edges The floating ice shelves around Antarctica, which buttress ice streams from the continent and slow their discharge into the sea, are thinning at faster rates. Paolo et al. present satellite data showing that ice shelves in many regions around the edge of the continent are losing mass. This result increases concern about how fast sea level might rise as climate continues to warm. If warming continues to cause ice shelves to thin, as they have for the past couple of decades, their disappearance may allow land-based ice to collapse and melt. Science , this issue p. 327