Ice caps: Eastern Antarctic continent melts

[recyclinage]

Ice caps: the east of the Antarctic continent is also melting

The ice cap of the eastern part of the Antarctic continent is no longer spared by the melt that was already affecting the western part of this continent, according to a study published Sunday in the specialized journal Nature Geoscience.

Ice caps retain huge amounts of water in the form of ice. The total melting of the Greenland ice cap would cause sea level to rise by about 7 meters, and the disappearance of the Antarctic ice cap would increase by more than 70 meters. "Our results show that the ice cap in the western part of the Antarctic continent has been losing ice at an accelerated rate since 2005 or 2006, while the eastern part of the continent shows similar signs for this period", according to the 'study. "These changes are attributed to an increase in ice loss in the coastal regions of the eastern part of the Antarctic continent," the authors say. For western Antarctica, the annual loss is estimated at 132 gigatonnes per year, with an uncertainty of plus or minus 26 gigatons; for the eastern part of the continent, it is minus 57 gigatonnes per year, with however a high uncertainty of plus or minus 52 gigatons. (HIE)

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