Southern ice has melted the fastest in 50 years

According to a study published April 15 by scientists, Antarctic ice is melting at the fastest rate in 50 years and 10 times faster than 600 years ago.

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Picture 1 of Southern ice has melted the fastest in 50 years
Ice in the Antarctic Peninsula is increasingly melting fast - (Photo: AP)

In Australia's Nature Geoscience magazine, the team said that in 2008, they drilled a 364-meter ice core on James Ross Island, near the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula to measure heat. in this area in the past.

They found that the ice core also helped "measure" the ice melt in the region, by measuring the thickness of the ice core layers.

'We found the coldest temperature in the Antarctic Peninsula and the lowest melting ice volume in the summer occurred about 600 years ago,' said Dr. Nerilie Abram of the Australian National University, a member of the Investigation Agency. The British Antarctic (BAS) and the research leader, said.

'At that time the temperature in the area was about 1.6 degrees Celsius, lower than the temperature recorded at the end of the 20th century, and the annual snowfall melted and freezed by about 0.5%. . Today this number is 10 times (5%), " Abram said.

Also according to Nerili Abram, while the temperature in this area is gradually increasing from hundreds of years ago, the phenomenon of strong melting ice has occurred since the mid-20th century. This means that the Antarctic Peninsula has been "hot". "So much so that even a slight increase in temperature can greatly increase the amount of melting ice in the summer.