Antarctica's ice melts faster than snowfall can replace it
Robert Lee Hotz
Los Angeles Times
Houston Chronicle
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The ice sheets of Antarctica — the world's largest reservoir of fresh water — are shrinking faster than new snow can fall, scientists reported Thursday in the first comprehensive satellite survey of the entire continent.
Researchers at the University of Colorado determined that between 2002 and 2005 Antarctica lost its ice at a rate of 36 cubic miles a year, rather than growing from heavier snowfalls as previous research had predicted. That amount of ice is equivalent to about 30 times the fresh water used by Los Angeles every year.
"It is the first time we can say that if you look at the entire ice sheet, it is losing mass," said geophysicist Isabella Velicogna, whose findings were published online Thursday by the journal Science.Earlier this month, an independent research team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., reported that the Arctic glaciers of Greenland were melting twice as fast as five years ago, adding an extra 38 cubic miles of fresh water to the Atlantic Ocean every year.
Mar 03, 2006
Robert Lee Hotz
Los Angeles Times
Houston Chronicle
_____________
The ice sheets of Antarctica — the world's largest reservoir of fresh water — are shrinking faster than new snow can fall, scientists reported Thursday in the first comprehensive satellite survey of the entire continent.
Researchers at the University of Colorado determined that between 2002 and 2005 Antarctica lost its ice at a rate of 36 cubic miles a year, rather than growing from heavier snowfalls as previous research had predicted. That amount of ice is equivalent to about 30 times the fresh water used by Los Angeles every year.
"It is the first time we can say that if you look at the entire ice sheet, it is losing mass," said geophysicist Isabella Velicogna, whose findings were published online Thursday by the journal Science.Earlier this month, an independent research team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., reported that the Arctic glaciers of Greenland were melting twice as fast as five years ago, adding an extra 38 cubic miles of fresh water to the Atlantic Ocean every year.
Mar 03, 2006
