Huge Antarctic ice blocks sliding into the sea: Study

It is also likely to cause increased concern about global fossil fuel emissions. Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey said that far from gaining in mass, as expected, because of increased snowfall in the polar regions, the West Antarctic ice sheet was losing 250 cubic kilometres of ice a year. This means Antarctica is contributing at least 15 per cent of the current 2mm annual rise in sea levels.

Chris Rapley, director of the survey, told an international conference on climate change in Exeter : “The previous view was that the West Antarctic ice sheet would not collapse before 2100.”

The panel concluded that Antarctica was “a slumbering giant”. Rapley said the survey’s discovery showed it was “a giant awakened”.

He said studies of the Antarctic had already shown that the collapse of floating ice shelves had acted like “a cork pulled out of a bottle” and increased the flow of ice streams – larger than glaciers – into the sea.