Antarctica is melting, raising sea levels more than in other places on our planet.
The seas around the coast of Antarctica have risen 3.15 inches (8 cm) in the last 19 years, 33 percent more than the global average of 2.36 inches (6 cm). This fact was uncovered by research at the University of Southampton in England, looking at satellite data from those 19 years.
According to the study, the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet and the surrounding ice shelves have added about 386 billion tons of freshwater to those seas, reducing the salinity of the seas.
"Freshwater is less dense than salt water and so in regions where an excess of freshwater has accumulated we expect a localized rise in sea level," said Craig Rye, lead author of the paper on the study.
The team at Southampton have also conducted computer simulations of how the melting of glaciers would impact the Antarctic Ocean, with the results closely matching what has been found in the satellite data.
"The computer model supports our theory that the sea-level rise we see in our satellite data is almost entirely caused by freshening (a reduction in the salinity of the water) from the melting of the ice sheet and its fringing ice shelves," said Rye. "The interaction between air, sea and ice in these seas is central to the stability of the Antarctic Ice Sheet and global sea levels, as well as other environmental processes, such as the generation of Antarctic bottom water, which cools and ventilates much of the global ocean abyss."
NASA has stated this climate change, due to the unprecedented levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, is likely a man-made situation.
The study was published in the journal Nature Geoscience, in the paper "Rapid sea-level rise along the Antarctic margins in response to increased glacial discharge." The paper was authored by Craig D. Rye, Alberto C. Naveira Garabato, Paul R. Holland, Michael P. Meredith, A. J. George Nurser, Chris W. Hughes, Andrew C. Coward and David J. Webb.
The research by the team at the University of Southampton was conducted with the aid of the National Oceanography Centre and the British Antarctic Survey.
