A comprehensive study conducted of the glaciers on Antarctic peninsula show that the glaciers are clearly getting smaller, researchers say. The question they have yet to answer is how much of the reduction is caused by global warming due to man's use of fossil fuels and how much of it is due to natural cycles of climate change.
The study was conducted jointly by the British Antarctic Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey. Researchers viewed more than 2,000 aerial photographs taken of the Antarctic peninsula from the 1940s onward and more than 100 satellite images taken from the 1960s to the present.
According to researchers, approximately 87 percent of the glaciers leaving the peninsula have been 'retreating' or shrinking in size over the past 50 years. The pace of the retreat has increased most dramatically over the past decade according to the results of the study.
'Fifty years ago, most of the glaciers we look at were slowly growing in length but since then this pattern has reversed. In the last five years the majority were actually shrinking rapidly,' said the study's leader, Alison Cook of the British Antarctic Survey. 'However, 32 glaciers go against the trend and are showing minor advance. Had we not studied such a large number of glaciers we may have missed the overall pattern.'
The Antarctic peninsula is a small part of the continent located right near the South Pole. It may or may not reflect what is happening to the rest of the continent.
Scientists are concerned about the melting of ice because it may result in a rising of sea levels and cause excess flooding and damage to coastal areas around the world.
'This is another piece in the jigsaw that tells us how climate change is affecting the planet. It may not be a significant piece, but there's a million-piece jigsaw out there to be filled in ... and this is one piece in it,' Vaughan said.
The researchers were uncertain what the exact cause of the retreating glaciers was. That is another important piece of the jigsaw puzzle that needs to be addressed.
