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This week 45 years ago

5 April 2006

If Antarctica’s ice melts

Antarctica is the only continent lying wholly within the grip of an ice age. If an uninterrupted accumulation at a steady pace is assumed, the ice cap must have taken between 20,000 and 33,000 years to grow to its present size and shape.

But now all weather statistics confirm a gradual warming of the atmosphere at the Earth’s surface. Will this warming lead to shrinkage of the ice mass, as at first seems logical? Or, as some geophysicists think, will warmer air carry more snow to deepen the ice layer? It is time for…

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