New Undersea Images Challenge Prevailing Ideas About The Antarctic Ice Sheet

Images of areas below the Eastern Ross Sea, next to West Antarctica, provide evidence that the subcontinent was involved in the general growth of the Antarctic Ice Sheet as it formed many millions of years ago, according to scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The National Science Foundation provided funding for the project. Changes in Antarctica, an area that contains approximately 90 percent of the world's ice, are particularly important for understanding some implications of global warming. For example, melting of ice sheets u"u" due to warming of the atmosphere and oceans u"u" has emerged as a key factor in the modeling of climate scenarios. And as ice melts, habitat for penguins and other marine animals also decreases...