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Study shows glacier ice loss on rise

More Greenland and Antarctica ice is falling into the ocean.

By WASHINGTON POST
Published March 16, 2007

WASHINGTON - Some of the largest glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland are moving in unusual ways and are losing increased amounts of ice to the sea, researchers said Thursday.

While the Greenland changes appear to be related to global warming, it remains unclear what is causing the glaciers, or ice streams, of frigid Antarctica to be losing ice to the ocean in recent years, the researchers said.

"In Greenland, we know there is melting associated with the ice loss, but in Antarctica we don't really know why it's happening," said Duncan Wingham, an author on the Science magazine review released today. "With so much of the world's ice captured in Antarctica, just the fact that we don't know why this is happening is a cause of some concern."

The Antarctic ice loss, which Wingham said is not caused by melting but rather the pushing of ice streams into the ocean by several glaciers in the west of the continent, has picked up speed in recent years. But Wingham said that because researchers have not had good measures of the depth of the Antarctic ice shelf until about 10 years ago, they don't know whether this is a natural variation or a result of changes created by human activity.

Because such a large percentage of the world's ice is found in those two locations, scientists are watching both for signs of increased melting and other ice loss.

[Last modified March 16, 2007, 01:28:06]