‘Antarctic ice shelves shrinking with no sign of recovery’: Scientists said

Photo by Tina Rolf on Unsplash

The European Space Agency deemed the findings "alarming."

About 40 percent of Antarctica's ice shelves have shrunk significantly over the past 25 years, scientists warned on Thursday.

According to research published in the journal Science Advances, between 1997 and 2021, 71 of Antarctica's 162 ice shelves lost mass due to melting - of which 68 posted a "statistically significant" reduction.

Scientists said the losses exceeded normal fluctuations in ice shelves and provided further evidence of how human-caused climate change is impacting Antarctica.

The European Space Agency (ESA) described the finding as "alarming".

Antarctic ice shelves show 'no sign of recovery'

Scientists behind the study say the observed changes are inconsistent with normal fluctuations in ice shelf mass.

"We predicted that most ice shelves would experience rapid but short periods of shrinking, followed by slow growth again," said lead author Benjamin Davison, a researcher at the University of Leeds.

"On the contrary, almost half of them are shrinking with no signs of recovery."

During the study period,  scientists found that 29 ice shelves increased in mass and 62 ice shelves was found with no significant changes.

Scientists have announced that 48 ice shelves have lost more than 30 percent of their mass in 25 years.

The main cause of the melting was that ocean currents and winds off West Antarctica forced warm water beneath the ice shelf.

Melting Antarctic ice causes sea level to rise 

Ice shelves are  platforms of floating ice that surround Antarctica and help protect and stabilize the region's glaciers by slowing their flow to the ocean.

Large melting ice shelves are releasing fresh water into the ocean, which could have a negative impact on ocean circulation, ESA said, and the study used satellite radar imagery.

Scientists have reported that the impact of climate change may be intensifying in Antarctica, as evidenced by the lowest point recorded for sea ice covering the ocean around the continent last winter.

According to NASA, the Antarctic ice sheet, as well as Greenland's, stores about two-thirds of  the Earth's total freshwater.

Meltwater  from these ice sheets has been responsible for approximately one-third of the global average sea level rise since 1993.