World-Wide Coastal Cities, In Grave Danger: Antarctica Ice Is Vanishing Five Times Faster Than Expected

It seems that Antarctica is losing its ice reserves faster than ever imagined. There are more than 100 meters of thickness that have vanished in some areas by now.

Express.co.uk notes that the ice loss is more than worrying, according to the latest data analysis from satellite.

The ice is lost five times faster compared to the ’90s 

A warmer Southern Ocean is triggering the melting of the Antarctica glaciers, and this is increasing really rapidly. It seems that ice is lost five times faster compared to the 1990s.

Back in 1992, the West Antarctic sheer has been stable but then, up to a quarter of its expanse is now getting thinner.

It was also reported that more than 320ft (100m) of ice thickness has been lost in the worst-hit places.

The West Antarctic ice sheet’s disappearance would drive the global sea levels to go up by about five meters, and this would result in the decimating of the coastal cities all over the world.

It also seems that the current losses are doubling every decade according to the scientists and the sea level rise is now running at the extreme.

The latest study compared 800 million satellite measurements 

Express.co.uk reported that the most recent study compared 800 million satellite measurements of ice sheet height from 1992 to 2017 with weather information.

Professor Andy Shepherd, of Leeds University, who led the study, said: “From a standing start in the 1990s, thinning has spread inland progressively over the past 25 years – that is rapid in glaciological terms.”

He continued and explained that “The speed of drawing down ice from an ice sheet used to be spoken of in geological timescales, but that has now been replaced by people’s lifetimes.”

Experts already knew that ice was being lost from West Antarctica, but this most recent work is showing just how rapidly this is happening. This will also enable more accurate projects about the sea level rise in the future.