According to recent study, ocean waters melting basal part of Antarctic ice shelves are accountable for the major loss of continent's ice shelf mass.
NASA scientists have studied the rates of basal ice melt of individual ice shelves, the floating extensions of glaciers that empty into the sea.
However, this is the first detailed survey of all Antarctic ice shelves.
During the study the scientists found that basal melt resulted in 55 percent of all Antarctic ice shelf mass loss in between 2003 to 2008, an amount much higher than predicted earlier.
Antarctica contains approx 60 percent of Earth’s fresh water into its massive ice sheet.
Ice shelves buttress the glaciers behind them, stimulating the speed at which these rivers of ice flow into the ocean.
Finding out how ice shelves melt would help scientists improve projections about how the Antarctic ice sheet will respond to a warming ocean and add to sea level rise.
In addition to that, it also will improve global models of ocean circulation by providing an adequate estimate of the amount of fresh water ice shelf melting contributing to Antarctic coastal waters.
The details of the study are published in the journal Science.
-With inputs from ANI
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