Printer friendly version Warm sea water is melting Antarctic
glaciers 06 December 2012 University of Gothenburg The ice sheet
in West Antarctica is melting faster than expected. New
observations published by oceanographers from the University of
Gothenburg and the US may improve our ability to predict future
changes in ice sheet mass. The study was recently published in
the journal Nature Geoscience. A reduction of the ice sheets in
Antarctica and Greenland will affect the water levels of the
world’s oceans. It is therefore problematic that we currently
have insufficient knowledge about the ocean circulation near
large glaciers in West Antarctica. This means that researchers
cannot predict how water levels will change in the future with
any large degree of certainty. “There is a clear reduction in
the ice mass in West Antarctica, especially around the glaciers
leading into the Amundsen Sea,” says researcher Lars Arneborg
from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of
Gothenburg. Together with his