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Madelaine Gamble Rosevear, Postdoctoral Fellow in Physical Oceanography, University of Tasmania

How is Antarctica melting, exactly? Crucial details are beginning to come into focus

The front of the Ross Ice Shelf floats in the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Matt Siegfried/Scripps Institution of Oceanography, CC BY-NC

The size of the Antarctic ice sheet can be hard to comprehend. Two kilometres thick on average and covering nearly twice the area of Australia, the ice sheet holds enough freshwater to raise global sea levels by 58 metres.

Ice loss from this sheet is projected to be the leading driver of sea level rise by 2100, yet its contribution remains highly uncertain. While sea levels are certain to rise this century, projections of the contribution from Antarctic ice vary from a 44 cm rise to a 22 cm fall.

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