and over the past 30 years, the melting of glaciers on Earth has accelerated, and now they are losing an average of 335 billion tons of their mass annually, which leads to a rise in the level of the World Ocean by almost one millimeter per year. This conclusion was reached by an international group of scientists conducting a large-scale study led by specialists from the University of Zurich.
Scientists in the study relied on data from observations of glaciers in the field and satellite geodetic measurements. This made it possible to carry out a virtual reconstruction of the thickness of more than 19 thousand glaciers on the planet.
Experts estimate that from 1961 to 2016, glaciers lost a total of 9.625 billion tons of ice due to melting. This resulted in a 27 mm rise in ocean water levels over this period. Most of the water produced by the glaciers of Alaska. This is followed by Patagonia and the Arctic region. Ice caps in the Alps, the Caucasus and New Zealand also suffered significant losses from warming, but due to their relatively modest exchange, they played only a small role in the rise in the level of the World Ocean.