American scientists from the University of California, Irvine have discovered significant mass loss in large glaciers in East Antarctica, including the Totten Glacier and the Moscow University Glacier. There is theoretically enough water in them to raise the sea level by five meters. This was announced in a press release on the Phys.org website.
Researchers assessed changes in the ice sheet by analyzing data obtained using NASA satellites as part of the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission. They combined them with climate model results that take account of the relationship between ice build-up rate and flow rate, and Operation IceBridge monitoring.
According to glaciologists, between April 2002 and September 2016, both glaciers lost about 18.5 billion tons of frozen water. This is equivalent to a 0.7 millimeter rise in sea level.
Although the eastern part of Antarctica was considered less vulnerable to global climate change than other glaciers, the increase in heat content in the ocean is contributing to the accelerated melting of ice.
