The waters surrounding the Totten Glacier are warmer than they used to be, threaten to melt the massive block of ice

Jan 27, 2015 13:44 GMT  ·  By

This Monday, scientists announced that, thanks to global warming, East Antarctica risks losing its Totten Glacier, a massive block of ice measuring 120 kilometers (nearly 75 miles) in length and 30 kilometers (almost 20 miles) in width.

Thus, it is said that the ocean waters surrounding this glacier are now much warmer than they used to be and are, therefore, eating away at the block of ice both from the sides and from below.

In a report detailing their work, the researchers behind this investigation go on to detail that the impact the increase in local waters is having on East Antarctica's Totten Glacier is significant enough to be noticed from space.

More precisely, they say that, in recent years, this block of ice has lost enough mass for the effect the crash diet global warming has put it on to be recorded by satellites. Otherwise put, space images show the glacier to be much thinner than it was not long ago.

“We used to think the glaciers in east Antarctica were unlikely to be affected by the ocean because they were a long way away from the warm ocean waters,” said specialist Steve Rintoul in an interview, as cited by ABC News.

“The fact that it's changing is something new, we used to think that the glaciers in east Antarctic were very stable and unlikely to change,” the Australian Climate and Environment Cooperative Research Centre researcher added.

It is understood that the waters around this glacier are now 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than they are in other corners of Antarctica. Should this cause the Totten Glacier to melt in its entirety, global sea levels could up by 6 meters (20 feet).