“Deep beneath the Antarctic ice cap lie buried lakes, storing hundreds of thousands of gallons of fresh water.
Now, scientists are slowly realizing the dangers of these lakes–
they possess the potential of unleashing massive floods as the ice melts.”
(Photo : British Antarctic Survey)

– “Massive Flood Impacts Antarctic Subglacial Lake”
“Deep beneath the Antarctic ice cap lie buried lakes, storing hundreds of thousands of gallons of fresh water. Thus far, nearly 380 of these ice-locked pockets have been discovered. Now, though, scientists are slowly realizing the dangers of these lakes–they possess the potential of unleashing massive floods as the ice melts.

Between 2007 and 2008, one of these lakes burst its banks. It ended up releasing a massive six billion tons of water directly into the ocean, according to Discovery News. The largest flooding event ever recorded on the continent, it revealed how quickly environmental shifts can change as water builds up over time,” quoting Catherine Griffin, ScienceWorldReport.com.
Read more

– “Scientists Image Vast Subglacial Water System Underpinning West Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier”
“In a development that will help predict potential sea level rise from the Antarctic ice sheet, scientists from The University of Texas at Austin’s Institute for Geophysics have used an innovation in radar analysis to accurately image the vast subglacial water system under West Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier. They have detected a swamp-like canal system beneath the ice that is several times as large as Florida’s Everglades.”

“The findings, as described this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, use new observational techniques to address long-standing questions about subglacial water under Thwaites, a Florida-sized outlet glacier in the Amundsen Sea Embayment considered a key factor in projections of global sea level rise,” quoting the University of Texas.
Read more

UPDATE: July 11, 2013
“Antarctic glacier calves iceberg one-fourth size of Rhode Island”
Read more from Science Codex.

UPDATE: July 21, 2013
“Message from the mud: East Antarctic meltdown could cause massive sea rise”
By John Roach, NBC News.
Read more

UPDATE: August 29, 2013
“Antarctica skating on thin ice”
By Steve Connor of the Independent Online.
Read more

UPDATE: November 17, 2013
“Volcano under Antarctic ice may erupt, accelerate melting”
“A newly discovered volcano rumbling beneath nearly a mile of ice in Antarctica will almost certainly erupt at some point in the future, according to a new study. Such an event could accelerate the flow of ice into the sea and push up the already rising global sea levels.

When the volcano will blow is unknown, “but it is quite likely” to happen, Amanda Lough, a graduate student in seismology at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., told NBC News,” quoting John Roach NBC News.
Read more

– UPDATE: April 24, 2014
“NASA on Alert as Giant Iceberg Breaks Off into Antarctica”
“Kelly Brunt: ‘It’s large enough that it warrants monitoring'”
By Priya Joshi in the International Business Times.
Read moreUPDATE: May 13, 2014

– UPDATE: May 12, 2014
“Scientists Warn of Rising Oceans From Polar Melt”
“A large section of the mighty West Antarctica ice sheet has begun falling apart and its continued melting now appears to be unstoppable, two groups of scientists reported.”
By Justin Gillis and Kenneth Chang in The New York Times.
Read more

– UPDATE: July 8, 2014
“Warm water likely to accelerate Antarctic ice melt and sea level rises, Australian scientists find”
By Margot O’Neill on Australia’s ABC.
Read more

– UPDATE: September 26, 2014
“…Gravity Dip From Ice loss”
“Although not designed to map changes in Earth’s gravity over time, ESA’s extraordinary satellite has shown that the ice lost from West Antarctica over the last few years has left its signature,” quoting ESA, the European Space Agency.
Read more

– UPDATE: December 5, 2014
“Historic thaw in Antarctica may have major effect on world’s coastal cities, studies say”
“The collapse of a mile-thick ice sheet could happen faster than anyone thought, according to twu (sic) studies,” quoting the Washington Post.
Read more

– UPDATE: December 5, 2014
“Sea level rise threatening Kennedy Space Center in Florida”
“Rising seas and pounding waves driven by climate change are chipping away at the coast near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, threatening launch pads and future operations, scientists said on Friday [Dec. 5].

“There’s reason to be nervous now because the problem is so obvious,” Peter Adams, a geology professor at the University of Florida, told Reuters,” quoting Barbara Liston, Reuters
Read more

– UPDATE: March 30, 2015
“Antarctica just had its warmest day on record”
“Thermometers at Argentina’s Esperanza Base, on the northern tip of Trinity Peninsula, recorded a high of 63.5 degrees Fahrenheit [March 24].

The high is believed to be an all-time record, beating out the high from just a day prior, at Argentina’s Marambio Base, where thermometers recorded a high of 63.3 degrees Fahrenheit,” quoting Brooks, the UPI.
Read more

– UPDATE: April 7, 2015
“Melting Accelerates in Antarctica: So Far, 2015 Is Hottest Year Yet”
By Dahr Jamail, Truthout.
Read more

– UPDATE: May 12, 2015
“West Antarctic Glacier Loss Appears Unstoppable”
“A new study by researchers at NASA and the University of California, Irvine, finds a rapidly melting section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet appears to be in an irreversible state of decline, with nothing to stop the glaciers in this area from melting into the sea.

The study presents multiple lines of evidence, incorporating 40 years of observations that indicate the glaciers in the Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica “have passed the point of no return,” according to glaciologist and lead author Eric Rignot, of UC Irvine and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The new study has been accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters,” quoting NASA’s JPL.
Read more

– UPDATE: May 21, 2015
“Antarctic Peninsula in ‘dramatic’ ice loss”
“Satellites have seen a sudden dramatic change in the behaviour of glaciers on the Antarctica Peninsula, according to a Bristol University-led study.

The ice streams were broadly stable up until 2009, since when they have been losing on the order of 56 billion tonnes of ice a year to the ocean.

Warm waters from the deep sea may be driving the changes, the UK-based team says.

The details of the satellite research are published in Science Magazine,” by Jonathan Amos, BBC Science Correspondent.
Read more

– Ramtha on Antarctica’s ice melt
“Little by little the chaos is coming. Just look at your world. A massive part of Greenland, not Iceland, broke loose and now is threatening the carbon supply. It is four to six times bigger than New York City. No one is talking about it except that it may ruin the oil rigs. That is all that is important — not global warming, no, no, no.

You don’t want to hear that Antarctica, the great Atlantis, is melting away. You will see the mountains and valleys and ancient pavilions. Scientists already see that it is melting away, that the ocean is rising — seventeen inches in a hundred years. They lie. Try two hundred feet, soon.
Who will be counting in feet if the Earth, like an orange, moves around inside its skin and rotates because the pull is so severe it tilts? Tilt — remember that word. Like a great tub of water, the tilt causes the ocean to stand high into space and then move across the landmasses. That is not fantasy; that is a geological fact. This little Earth, your sweet and beautiful home, is vulnerable to everything coming. And this, my beloved people, is your incarnation.”
– Ramtha
Evening, Critical Times – Part I
August 13, 2010