Antarctic ice sheet 'thinning'

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This discussion may not rate very highly in people's interest, but to us, in Australia, it is very important, as it should be to you all."A PIECE of the Antarctic ice sheet the size of Texas is thinning, possibly due to global warming, and could cause the world's oceans to rise significantly, polar ice experts say. They said "surprisingly rapid changes" were occurring in Antarctica's Amundsen Sea Embayment, which faces the southern Pacific Ocean, but that more study was needed to know how fast it was melting and how much it could cause the sea level to rise. The warning came in a joint statement issued at the end of a conference of US and European polar ice experts at the University of Texas in Austin. The scientists blamed the melting ice on changing winds around Antarctica that they said were causing warmer waters to flow beneath ice shelves. The wind change appeared to be the result of several factors, including global warming, ozone depletion in the atmosphere and natural variability. The thinning in the 3.2km- thick ice shelf was being observed mostly from satellites, but it was not known how much ice had been lost because data was difficult to obtain on the remote ice shelves, they said. Study was focusing on the Amundsen Sea Embayment because it had been melting quickly and held enough water to raise world sea levels 6m, the scientists said. "The place where the biggest change is occurring is the Amundsen Sea Embayment," said Donald Blankenship of the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics. "One, it's changing, and two, it can have a big impact," he said in a webcast with a number of conference participants. Other parts of the continent also were losing ice, he said, but generally not as quickly."Do you realise what the effects will be on Australia? Consider our huge coastline, & where 90% of our people live. http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,21469179-912,00.html