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Study: Warm Water, Not Hot Air, Melting Ice Shelves
May 02, 2012
By The Canadian Press | WASHINGTON - Antarctica`s massive ice shelves are shrinking because they are being eaten away from below by warm water, a new study finds.
That suggests that future sea levels could rise faster than many scientists have been predicting. The western chunk of Antarctica is losing 23 feet of its floating ice sheet each year. Until now, scientists were not exactly sure how it was happening and whether or how man-made global warming might be a factor.
The answer, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, is that climate change plays an indirect role, but one that has larger repercussions than if Antarctic ice merely were melting from warmer air.
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(c)2012 The Canadian Press.
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Story image: The Wormald Ice Piedmont covers large parts of the Wright Peninsula on eastern Adelaide Island, Antarctica. Courtesy: Vincent van Zeijst and Wikimedia Commons
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