Warm ocean speeds melting of Antarctic glacier

12:17 PM Tue 28 Jun 2011 GMT

'Autosub3 is deployed to go under Pine Island Glacier' British Antarctic Survey &copy

New results from an investigation into a large glacier in Antarctica and its impact on global sea level rise are published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience. An international team of scientists from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and British Antarctic Survey has discovered that due to an increased volume of warm water reaching the cavity beneath Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica, it's melting 50 percent faster than it was 15 years earlier. The glacier is currently sliding into the sea at a rate of four kilometres (2.5 miles) a year, while its ice shelf (the part that floats on ...

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by British Antarctic Survey