NEWS
CLIMATE, EARTH, OCEANS Antarctica has lost about 3 trillion metric tons of ice since 1992 Ice loss is accelerating and that's helped raise the global sea level by about 8 millimeters
BY LAUREL HAMERS 1:23PM, JUNE 13, 2018
Antarctica is losing ice at an increasingly rapid pace. In just the last five years, the frozen continent has shed ice nearly three times faster on average than it did over the previous 20 years.
An international team of scientists has combined data from two dozen satellite surveys in the most comprehensive assessment of Antarctica's ice sheet mass yet. The conclusion: The frozen continent lost an estimated 2,720 billion metric tons of ice from 1992 to 2017, and most of that loss occurred in recent years, particularly in West Antarctica. Before 2012, the continent shed ice at a rate of 76 billion tons each year on average, but from 2012 to 2017, the rate increased to 219 billion tons annually.
Combined, all that water raised the global sea level by an average of 7.6 millimeters, the researchers report in the June 14 Nature. About two-fifths of that rise occurred in the last five years, an increase in severity that is helping scientists understand how the ice sheet is responding to climate change.
"When we place that against the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's] sea level projections, prior to this Antarctica was tracking the low end of sea-level-rise projections," says study coauthor Andrew Shepherd, an earth scientist at the University of Leeds in England. "Now it's tracking the upper end."
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Science Snooze
Comment: Following a brutal, record breaking winter, spring brought epic flooding and life-threatening hail to nearly every region on the planet:
- Flash flooding hits Guadalajara, Mexico - Passengers forced to swim out of rail cars
- El Paso County in Colorado sees worst overnight hailstorm in more than 20 years
- Floods in Switzerland, Italy and Germany following 2 inches of rain in an hour
- Flash flooding hits Baton Rouge, Louisiana - 3 INCHES of rain falls in less than an hour
- Floods inundate southern Israel as freak rains batter country
- Severe hailstorm brings flooding to Užice, Serbia
- Intense hailstorm pounds Medina, Saudi Arabia with huge stones, damaging cars and creating traffic chaos
- Hail larger than softballs pummeled Cordoba, Argentina (PHOTO, VIDEO)
For more, check out SOTTs' monthly documentary: SOTT Earth Changes Summary - May 2018: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs