Antarctic Ice Melting: Uncovering a History of Climate Change

Scientists have used images from America's Landsat spacecraft to track the changing shapes of bumps on the Antarctic ice surface, which mark locations where glaciers are anchored. They found that more than a third of these "pinning points" have reduced in size since 2000, indicating an acceleration in melting. This research, published in the journal Nature, highlights the increasing contribution of Antarctic ice losses to future global sea-level rise and provides a deeper historical understanding of where and when ice loss began. The study underscores the vulnerability of ice shelves to warm water and emphasizes their role as a key braking mechanism for slowing the movement of ice off the continent.