Scientists have calculated that the fastest changing Antarctic region - the Amundsen Sea Embayment - has lost more than 3,000 billion tonnes of ice over a 25-year period.
Scientists have calculated that the fastest changing Antarctic region - the Amundsen Sea Embayment - has lost more than 3,000 billion tonnes of ice over a 25-year period.
If all the lost ice was piled on London, it would stand over 2 km tall - or 7.4 times the height of the Shard. If it were to cover Manhattan, it would stand at 61 km – or 137 Empire State Buildings placed on top of one another.
Twenty major glaciers form the Amundsen Sea Embayment in West Antarctica, which is more than four times the size of the UK, and they play a key role in contributing to the level of the world’s oceans.
So much water is held in the snow and ice, that if it were to all to drain into the sea, global sea levels could increase by more than one metre.
Read more at University of Leeds
Image: Amundsen Sea Embayment (Credit: University of Leeds)
