International
Climate change: 'Ice bumps' reveal history of Antarctic melting
Scientists say they now have a better idea of exactly where and when the margin of Antarctica started melting.
America's Landsat spacecraft have been looking down on Antarctica since 1973. |
They've traced the changing shapes of bumps on the ice surface that mark locations where glaciers are anchored in place. Half a century ago, few of these frozen moorings, or "pinning points", showed much change.
Since 2000, however, more than a third have reduced in size, emphasising the acceleration in melting. The research is published in the journal Nature and underscores once again the increasing contribution that ice losses from the continent will make to future sea-level rise around the globe.
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