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Antarctic ice loss 'increasing'

15 January 2008

The mass loss of the Antarctica ice sheet increased by 75 per cent in the ten years to 2006, scientists have warned.

Professor Jonathan Bamber from the University of Bristol and colleagues estimated the flux of ice from the ice sheet into the ocean using satellite date that cover 85 per cent of Antarctica's coastline.

They say there was a loss of 132 billion tonnes of ice in 2006 from West Antarctica, up from about 83 billion tonnes in 1996.

There was also a loss of about 60 billion tonnes in 2006 from the Antarctic Peninsula.

"To put these figures into perspective, four billion tons of ice is enough to provide drinking water for the whole of the UK population for one year," Professor Bamber said.

The ice mass in East Antarctica has been roughly stable, the scientists claim, with neither loss nor accumulation over the decade to 2006.

However they warn that the thinning of its potentially vulnerable marine sectors suggests this may change in the near future.

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