Antarctic thawing-glacier theory divides climate change scientists

Glaciers in part of Antarctica have started to thaw fast, adding to sea level rise that threatens coasts and cities from New York to Shanghai, a team of scientists said in a study.

Another expert in the field however immediately cast doubt on the conclusions of the study published on Thursday, suggesting it had greatly overestimated the rate of ice loss.

The glaciers along a stretch of coast about 750km long in the southern Antarctic peninsula, which snakes up towards South America, began to thin suddenly from around 2009, the team which produced the study said.

"This area is starting to lose ice very rapidly ... an area where we didn't expect it to happen," said lead author Bert Wouters, of the University of Bristol in England. The study was published in the journal Science.

The team estimated that water from the glaciers in the region were now adding 0.16mm a year to global sea levels, which are rising at about 3mm a year.

From 2002-10, satellite monitoring indicated that the glaciers were gaining snow and ice as fast as they were slipping into the sea. But something happened around 2009, speeding the slide.