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Earth's
Antarctic
Ice Sheet
For
millions
of years,
Antarctica,
the frozen
continent
at the
southern
end of the
planet,
has been
encased in
a gigantic
sheet of
ice.
Recently,
the
Gravity
Recovery
and
Climate
Experiment
(GRACE)
satellite
has been
taking
sensitive
measurements
of the
gravity
for the
entire
Earth,
including
Antarctica.
Recent
analysis
of GRACE
data
indicate
that the
Antarctic
ice sheet
might have
lost
enough
mass to
cause the
worlds'
oceans to
rise about
.05
inches, on
the
average,
from
between
2002 and
2005.
Although
this may
not seem
like much,
the
equivalent
amount of
water is
about 40
trillion
gallons,
equivalent
to the
amount of
water used
by U.S.
residents
in three
months.
Uncertainties
in the
measurement
make the
mass loss
uncertain
by about
21
trillion
gallons.
The
iceberg
pictured
above is a
small part
of the
Antarctic
ice sheet.
The
picture
was taken
on the
Riiser-Larsen
ice shelf
in
December
1995.
Future
research
will
likely
focus on
trying to
better
understand
the data,
take more
data,
predict
future
trends,
and
understand
possible
effects of
these
trends on
the future
climate of
our entire
home
planet.
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