A new study has confirmed that Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier, which has been called the main contributor to rising sea levels, will likely continue to shrink for decades, with or without some assistance from global warming.
"Our findings reveal that Pine Island Glacier has experienced rapid thinning at least once in the past, and that, once set in motion, rapid ice sheet changes in this region can persist for centuries," scientists wrote in the U.S. journal Science.
Scientists have also confirmed the glacier shrunk some 8,000 years ago at a similar rate, though the melting period lasted anywhere between decades to centuries, according to Reuters.
The Pine Island Glacier, which carries more water to the sea than the Rhine River, could raise global sea levels by around 0.4 inches in the next few decades.
Since the early 1990s, the glacier has thinned out by around 3-5 feet per year.
"It seems to be a similar mechanism now, it could easily continue for decades," Professor Mike Bentley of Durham University in England, said according to Reuters.
A rise in sea levels is a threat to areas from Bangladesh to Florida, and to cities from London to Shanghai.
Benley said that a build-up of man-made greenhouse gases is the main reason for warmer waters, which has been named a factor for the accelerating thinning of the glacier the last two decades.
Experts are currently analyzing the history of other glaciers to help figure out what might happen.
"The amount of ice being lost from Pine Island glacier is equivalent to every person on our planet pouring 10 pints of water into the ocean every day," Professor Andrew Shepherd, an expert at the University of Leeds, said to Reuters. "That's the last thing our flood defenses need right now."
A United Nations' panel on climate change stated recently that global warming could cause sea levels to increase approximately 10-32 inches by the late 21st century, according to Reuters.
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