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Originally published in Science Express on 23 September 2004
Science 8 October 2004:
Vol. 306. no. 5694, pp. 255 - 258
DOI: 10.1126/science.1099650
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Reports

Accelerated Sea-Level Rise from West Antarctica

R. Thomas,1,2* E. Rignot,2,3 G. Casassa,2 P. Kanagaratnam,4 C. Acuña,2 T. Akins,4 H. Brecher,5 E. Frederick,1 P. Gogineni,4 W. Krabill,6 S. Manizade,1 H. Ramamoorthy,4 A. Rivera,2,7 R. Russell,1 J. Sonntag,1 R. Swift,1 J. Yungel,1 J. Zwally6

Recent aircraft and satellite laser altimeter surveys of the Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica show that local glaciers are discharging about 250 cubic kilometers of ice per year to the ocean, almost 60% more than is accumulated within their catchment basins. This discharge is sufficient to raise sea level by more than 0.2 millimeters per year. Glacier thinning rates near the coast during 2002–2003 are much larger than those observed during the 1990s. Most of these glaciers flow into floating ice shelves over bedrock up to hundreds of meters deeper than previous estimates, providing exit routes for ice from further inland if ice-sheet collapse is under way.

1 EG&G Inc., NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)/Wallops Flight Facility (WFF), Building N-159, Wallops Island, VA 23337, USA.
2 Centro de Estudios Científicos (CECS), Avenida Arturo Prat 514, Casilla 1469, Valdivia, Chile.
3 Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.
4 Radar Systems and Remote Sensing Laboratory, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA.
5 Byrd Polar Research Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
6 Code 972, NASA-GSFC, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
7 Departamento de Geografía, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 3387, Santiago, Chile.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: thomas{at}osb.wff.nasa.gov

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