East Antarctica is often imagined as unchanging and steady liken to West Antartica , its vulnerable andmelty neighbour . However , as the effects of climate change start to sink in their tooth , East Antarctica ’s glaciers are trembling and seem to be losing chalk at a much dissipated rate than ever anticipated .
A late NASA study , presented this week at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union ( AGU ) in Washington , has revealed that a group of glaciers covering a meaning portion of East Antartica has been losing ice at a velocity never understand before over the past decade .
" The change does n’t seem random ; it looks taxonomic , " Alex Gardner , a glaciologist with NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California , say at theAGU wardrobe league . " And that taxonomic nature jot at underlying ocean influence that have been implausibly strong in West Antarctica . Now we might be finding clear links of the sea get to charm East Antarctica . "
The massive Totten Glacier is of particular concern . comprehend around 6,200 straight kilometers ( 2,400 square miles ) of ice , the melting of this ice ledge alone could nurture sea levels by over 3.3 meters ( 11 feet ) . According to the enquiry , it is now steady retreating due to the warming sea temperatures , along with four great glaciers to its Rebecca West and a handful of smaller glacier to its eastward .
" Totten is the liberal glacier in East Antarctica , so it attracts most of the research focussing , " added Catherine Walker , a glaciologist at NASA ’s Goddard Space Flight Center . " But once you start out asking what else is happening in this region , it turns out that other nearby glaciers are respond in a like way to Totten . "
Nevertheless , the situation in West Antartica is still the burning emergence , most clearly ascertain by thebreak - up of the Larsen Ice Shelf . Glaciologists are also pretty concerned about the Thwaites Glacier of West Antartica , which come out to becollapsing into the seaat an alarming rate .
The findings were based on detailed orbiter imagery from a NASA project , called Inter - delegation Time Series of Land Ice Velocity and Elevation ( ITS LIVE ) , which tracks changes in the aerofoil elevation of glaciers . The investigator also twin this selective information with estimator simulations of sea temperature and datum from detector - go after marine mammal .
The rate of melt can vary from class to year depending on a issue of clime term . However , make no mistake , clime change is not helping this situation , by any means . As global temperature creep up , fond water will make their path to East Antartica more often and melting will occur at an increase rate .
