Antarctic ice shelves not melting at all, new field data show
Crafty boffins got elephant seals to survey for them Twenty-
year-old models which have suggested serious ice loss in the
eastern Antarctic have been compared with reality for the first
time - and found to be wrong, so much so that it now appears
that no ice is being lost at all. "Previous ocean models ...
have predicted temperatures and melt rates that are too high,
suggesting a significant mass loss in this region that is
actually not taking place," says Tore Hattermann of the
Norwegian Polar Institute, member of a team which has obtained
two years' worth of direct measurements below the massive Fimbul
Ice Shelf in eastern Antarctica - the first ever to be taken.
According to a statement from the American Geophysical Union,
announcing the new research: It turns out that past studies,
which were based on computer models without any direct data for
comparison or guidance, overestimate the water temperatures and
extent of melting beneath the Fimbul I