West Antarctica’s ice shelves are melting much faster than previously thought due to warmer sea temperatures.
Researchers at the University of East Anglia have warned of the potential "worrying" rise in global sea levels if the Antarctica’s ice shelves melt.
Researchers have warned if there is a loss in Antarctic ice shelves it could lead to the glaciers behind them flowing more rapidly into the sea.
This would put more melting ice into the sea, which would increase sea levels dramatically.
Professor Karen Heywood commented "Although many of the large ice shelves buttressing the Antarctic ice sheet are not yet melting, the source of warm water seems to be getting closer, so these ice shelves could begin to melt in future which is worrying in terms of global sea level rise."
The West Antarctic ice sheet is close to the regions known to be warming. The complete melting of this ice sheet would raise global sea levels by 4.8 metres, which is enough to have a devastating effect on anyone living near the coast.
Scientists investigated data from oceanographic records from the 1960s to date, and found a rise in temperatures. Just one example of this can be found in the warmest waters near the sea bed in the Bellingshausen Sea which have risen from about 0.8°C in the 1970s to 1.2°C in 2010.
There are also other indicators of the melting freshwater ice, one of which being the water around the Antarctica becoming less salty.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has also estimated that sea level could rise up to 0.91 meters by 2100, a number which seems small in comparison. This is an amount many believe may be an underestimation of what will happen in reality.
