Antarctic Melting Alarms Researchers

The gradual warming of Antarctic waters is causing ice shelves there to melt and collapse at rates that astonish many experts, British researchers reported in this week’s issue of Science. The researchers found that warming ocean waters have been melting one ice shelf, called Larsen-C, from below, and they said the same process probably melted two other shelves, Larsen-A and Larsen-B, on the eastern half of the Antarctic.

“The fact that warm water is able to reach the Antarctic Ice Sheet means that other regions may become equally susceptible,” said Andrew Shepherd of Cambridge University. “The release of cold melt-water into the oceans could disturb stable patterns of global ocean circulation.”