Why is Antarctic ice melting faster over the Peninsula and in West Antarctica than in East Antarctica?
The Antarctic Ice Sheet is complex, and different regions respond differently. Ice loss by melting along the Antarctic Peninsula is a direct result of warming air temperature. The rate of temperature rise in this region (2.5ºC over the last 50 years) is among the greatest on our planet. Increased ice discharge from glaciers is, in some cases, a result of the collapse of floating ice shelves. In the more northerly parts of the Antarctic Peninsula, large ice shelves are eroded from beneath by warming ocean waters, and a number of these ice shelves have catastrophically disintegrated. Although the collapse of a floating ice shelf does not add to sea level, the removal of buttressing by the ice shelves may “unplug” land-based glaciers behind the former ice shelves, and these can then flow more rapidly into the sea. The cause of acceleration of other large outlet glaciers in West Antarctica is not fully understood, but may be related to marine ice shelf instability (discussed under the next
