Warm Ocean Drives Most Antarctic Ice Shelf Loss   
      
   June 13, 2013 — Ocean waters melting the undersides of Antarctic ice shelves,   
   not icebergs calving into the sea, are responsible for most of the continent's   
   ice loss, a study by UC Irvine and others has found.   
      
   The first comprehensive survey of all Antarctic ice shelves discovered that   
   basal melt, or ice dissolving from underneath, accounted for 55 percent of   
   shelf loss from 2003 to 2008 -- a rate much higher than previously thought.   
   Ice shelves, floating    
   extensions of glaciers, fringe 75 percent of the vast, frozen continent.   
      
   The findings, to be published in the June 14 issue of Science, will help   
   scientists improve projections of how Antarctica, which holds about 60 percent   
   of the planet's fresh water locked in its massive ice sheet, will respond to a   
   warming ocean and    
   contribute to sea level rise.   
      
   http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130613142827.htm   
      
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