Researchers have used Antarctic mountains as gigantic "dipsticks" to measure the frozen history of the world's largest ice sheet. Dr Andrew Mackintosh, a senior lecturer at Victoria University said the research - published this week in the American journal, Geology - has thrown new light on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet which is centred on the South Pole and lies on the Indian Ocean side of the Transantarctic Mountains. It showed the ice sheet - the world's largest, containing enough water to increase global sea levels by 60m - has been relatively stable since the last ice age 20,000 years ago.
"Our research suggests changes in sea levels due to global warming will not be caused by changes in East Antarctic Ice Sheet yet," he said in a statement. "Most sea level rise in the short term will instead be sourced from the melting of valley glaciers, thermal expansion of the oceans, and from retreat of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets."
The team found that from 13,000 to 7000 years ago, when sea levels rose by over 100m, the ice sheet thinned by 200m to 350m. (Yahoo News)