Small Melting Glaciers Will Speed Sea Level Rise, Study Says

The rapid melt of small glaciers and mountain ice caps will be the main source of sea level rise over the next century, according to a new study. The research, led by Mark Meier of the University of Colorado at Boulder, also suggests that sea levels could rise more during the 21st century than had previously been thought. From 1996 to 2006, small melting glaciers dumped water into the oceans at growing rates year over year, the study found. If this acceleration continues, sea levels could rise faster than some models had predicted. Many people have heard that the two big ice sheetsu"on Greenland and Antarcticau"are "the big players," Meier said. "They will be, on time scales of centuries or millennia," he added. "But for the next few generations, it is the small glaciers that will be most important...