Antarctica Glaciers Holding Back Ice Equal to 4-Foot Rise in Oceans

Two Antarctica glaciers are holding back enough ice to raise the world's oceans by 4 feet over centuries if it were to melt, The New York Times reported.

The Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers stand in the way of coastal cities from being underwater, and both are shedding an increasing amount of ice into the Amundsen Sea each year, the Times reports.

In the case of Pine Island, its flow increased by 75 percent from 1973 to 2010, the Times reported.

And last month, an iceberg 100 square miles in size shed from Pine Island.

"This is a result of the warmer waters in front of them," climate scientist Eric Rignot told the Times. "In some relatively colder years, we know the melt rate slowed down and the glaciers slowed down. On warm ocean years, the glacier moves really fast."

Rignot told the Times that these two glaciers "are the largest dischargers of ice in the Antarctic right now."

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