"Part of Antarctica's Ross ice shelf — the largest ice shelf in the world — appears to be melting 10 times faster than the ice around it. And researchers say a new process, one that was only rarely considered by scientists in the past, is the likely culprit.

The findings, published yesterday in the journal Nature Geoscience, point to warm ocean water, heated up by the sun at the surface of the sea, as the driver behind the melting.

It sounds deceptively simple, but it's actually a process that hasn't been well documented until now. Scientists know the ocean has an important influence on the melt rates of some Antarctic glaciers, but most recent research has focused on deep-sea currents rather than surface water. Scientists are finding that some deep currents — potentially driven by processes influenced by climate change — are helping drive masses of relatively warm water up to the edge of the ice sheet in certain regions of Antarctica, melting glaciers from the bottom up (Climatewire, April 10, 2018).

But in this case, the researchers are pointing instead to the simple influence of the sun."

Chelsea Harvey reports for ClimateWire April 30, 2019. [2]