Antarctica ice loss increases six fold since 1979, new study finds

Global warming is melting ice in Antarctica faster than ever before - about six times more per year now than 40 years ago - leading to increasingly high sea levels worldwide, scientists have warned.

This 2016 photo provided by NASA shows the Getz Ice Shelf.

Already, Antarctic melting has raised global sea levels more 1.4cm between 1979 and 2017, according to the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer-reviewed US journal.

And the pace of melting is expected to lead to disastrous sea level rise in the years to come, according to lead author Eric Rignot, chair of Earth system science at the University of California, Irvine.

"As the Antarctic ice sheet continues to melt away, we expect multi-meter sea level rise from Antarctica in the coming centuries," Rignot said.

Read the SBS News story - “Antarctica ice loss increases six fold since 1979, new study finds.”