Antarctica: Ice mass loss increasing at alarming levels

By Gamze Turkoglu Oguz

ANKARA (AA) - Ice sheets in the Arctics of the southern hemisphere are melting at a threatening level, with a six-fold increase in yearly mass loss.

A new study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) shared key findings on the matter.

Researchers from the University of California Irvine, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Netherlands' Utrecht University found that the melting caused sea levels to rise more than half an inch between 2011 and 2017.

The project covered a geographically large area and the research team examined 18 regions encompassing 176 basins and the surrounding islands.

Science Daily reported that the loss of ice mass rose dramatically from 1979 to 2001, with the rate of loss increasing by 280 percent to 134 billion tons between 2001 and 2017.

Researchers also warned that the climate warming and ozone depletion will further exacerbate the threat of sea level rise.