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Pervasive ice retreat in west Antarctica

Along the Bellingshausen Sea coast of West Antarctica, ice has been retreating inland being lost to the sea. Scientists knew this, but they lacked a full picture of the scale. A team of researchers has compiled a Landsat-based data set and found that such losses have been going on for at least the past four decades. The widespread retreat has likely been caused by warmer ocean water licking at the undersides of the floating ice near the grounding line. The image above shows an area near Eltanin Bay, where the majority of the grounding line is found at the seaward front of the ice. It was acquired by the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8 on March 2, 2015. The ice loss is most pronounced along the Ferrigno Ice Stream. NASA/UPI

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