Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, October 14 (Xinhua)-- the European Space Agency (ESA) said that 40% of the floating ice shelves in Antarctica have significantly reduced in the past 25 years. While this highlights the accelerating impact of climate change on the world's southernmost continent, the deterioration of ice has been mixed.

A study by the European Space Agency made an important assessment of the "health" of the Antarctic ice shelf based on 100000 satellite radar images. The huge floating extension of the continental ice sheet plays a vital role in stabilizing glaciers in Antarctica by acting as a support to slow the flow of ice into the ocean.

As a result, Antarctica faces a double whammy-the rate of ice sheet loss increases as the ice shelf becomes smaller.

CTOnews.com noted that 71 of the 162 ice shelves around Antarctica had shrunk, releasing nearly 67 trillion tons of meltwater into the ocean. In addition to the loss of mass of the ice shelf, the entry of fresh water into the ocean may have an impact on ocean circulation patterns.

The team found ice loss on almost all ice shelves on the west side of Antarctica. By contrast, most of the ice shelves on the east side remain intact or have increased mass. Benjamin Davidson, a researcher at the University of Leeds, said: "the deterioration of the ice shelf is mixed, which is related to ocean temperatures and ocean currents around Antarctica.

The Gates Ice Shelf is one of the most shrinking ice shelves, losing 1.9 trillion tons of ice during the 25-year study. Only 5% of this is caused by ice disintegration, that is, large chunks of ice fall off the continental shelf and fall into the ocean, while the rest is attributed to melting at the bottom of the ice shelf.

Similarly, the Matsujima Ice Shelf lost 1.3 trillion tons of ice, of which approximately 1/3 (450 billion tons) was caused by calving and the rest by melting at the bottom of the Ice Shelf.

Antarctica is a vast continent, and the ocean on the west side experiences different ocean currents and winds compared to the east, which raises the temperature of the sea below the west ice shelf.

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