Part of Antarctica has begun thawing unusually fast, leaving scientists unsure whether a natural cycle or human-caused climate change is responsible. By Tim Radford

Antarctic glaciers once thought relatively stable are starting to melt. Evidence from a five-year satellite study of the frozen rivers on the southern Antarctic Peninsula now reveal that these are shedding ice at the rate of 60 cubic kilometres a year: altogether around 300 trillion litres of water has moved from the frozen continent to the oceans. Bert Wouters of …

Sudden onset of ice loss in Antarctica so large it affects Earth’s gravity field

A group of scientists, led by a team from the University of Bristol, UK has observed a sudden increase of ice loss in a previously stable region of Antarctica. The research is published today in Science. Using measurements of the elevation of the Antarctic ice sheet made by a suite of satellites, the researchers found that the Southern Antarctic Peninsula showed …