May 21, 2015

expert reaction to thinning of Southern Antarctic peninsular glaciers

Publishing in the journal Science, researchers have reported the loss of ice from Antarctic ice sheets and suggest that warmer waters surrounding the glaciers may be responsible for the loss.

Professor Andy Shepherd, Director of the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, University of Leeds, and Principal Scientific Advisor to the European Space Agency’s Cryosat Mission, said:

“Although these latest Cryosat measurements of Antarctic thinning agree with findings from two studies reported last year, I think the new estimates of ice loss computed from
them are far too high, because the glaciers in this sector just haven’t speeded up that much. It could be that a bigger chunk of the thinning is down to snowfall fluctuations than the authors have accounted for, and so I would be cautious about the new numbers until more information is to hand.”

‘Dynamic thinning of glaciers on the Southern Antarctic Peninsula’ by B. Wouters et al. published in Science on Thursday 22 May 2015.