More ice melt discovered in Antarctica

Bristol, England -- A British study discovered increasing amounts of ice have been lost from West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula during the past 10 years.

University of Bristol Professor Jonathan Bamber, who made the discovery, also determined the ice mass in East Antarctica remained nearly stable during the same period.

Bamber and colleagues used satellite data that cover about 85 percent of Antarctica's coastline to estimate the flux of ice from the ice sheet.

The researchers estimated a loss of 132 billion tons of ice during 2006 from West Antarctica -- up from about 83 billion tons during 1996. They also estimated a loss of about 60 billion tons during 2006 from the Antarctic Peninsula.

"To put these figures into perspective, four billion tons of ice is enough to provide drinking water for the whole of the (United Kingdom's) population for one year," said Bamber.

The study appears online in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.