Shrinking glaciers confirm the worst

30 April 2005

The worst fears about Antarctica's melting glaciers have been confirmed. The first comprehensive survey of glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula shows a widespread retreat that may be more evidence of global warming.

The mountainous Antarctic Peninsula stretches north from the icy continent towards South America. Its 244 glaciers dump their ice into the sea as icebergs. Now a team from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in Cambridge reports in Science (vol 308, p 541) that 87 per cent of the glaciers have retreated over the past 50 years. The team looked at 2000 aerial and satellite photographs of the peninsula dating back to 1940.

Glacier flows and iceberg calving are affected by many local factors. But BAS glaciologist David Vaughan says the survey reveals an unambiguous pattern of retreat in recent years. "The peninsula could end up looking like the Alps, with all the glaciers ending halfway up their valleys."

"On average, the glaciers are retreating by 50 metres a year," says BAS researcher Alison Cook. The air around the peninsula has warmed by 2.5 °C in recent decades - five times the Antarctic average.

http://environment.newscientist.com/article/mg18624975.600.html