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Science 2 February 2001:
Vol. 291. no. 5505, pp. 862 - 864
DOI: 10.1126/science.291.5505.862
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Reports

Inland Thinning of Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica

Andrew Shepherd,1* Duncan J. Wingham,1 Justin A. D. Mansley,1 Hugh F. J. Corr2

The Pine Island Glacier (PIG) transports 69 cubic kilometers of ice each year from ~10% of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). It is possible that a retreat of the PIG may accelerate ice discharge from the WAIS interior. Satellite altimetry and interferometry show that the grounded PIG thinned by up to 1.6 meters per year between 1992 and 1999, affecting 150 kilometers of the inland glacier. The thinning cannot be explained by short-term variability in accumulation and must result from glacier dynamics.

1 Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling, Department of Space and Climate Physics, University College London, 17 Gordon Street, London, WC1H 0AH, UK.
2 British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: aps{at}mssl.ucl.ac.uk

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