At a Glance

Between 2010 and 2016, the warming Southern Ocean has melted 565 square miles of underwater ice.That's as much as 10 percent of the continent's eight largest glaciers.The findings are disturbing because should theice recession continue, there could be atotal collapse of the world's largest ice sheet.

Antarctica's underwater footprint is retreating five timesfaster than expected, with warming water melting as much as 10 percent of the continent's eight largest glaciers, a new study says.

Researchers from the U.K. Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at the University of Leeds used satellite imagery to determinethat the grounding line, or the boundary where the submarine edge of the ice sheet begins to float, is , according to the study published Monday in Nature Geoscience.

Data collected by the scientists using theEuropean Space Agency's CryoSat-2 satellite indicates that between 2010 and 2016, the warming Southern Ocean has melted 565 square miles, or 10 percent,of Antarctica's underwater ice at eight of the largest glaciers on the continent.

The findings are disturbing because should theice recession continue, there could be atotal collapse of the world's largest ice sheet with accompanying sea level rise.

"Our study provides clear evidence that retreat is happening across the ice sheet due to ocean melting at its base, and not just at the few spots that have been mapped before now," lead researcher Hannes Konrad said in a. "This retreat has had a huge impact on inland glaciers, because releasing them from the seabed removes friction, causing them to speed up and contribute to global sea level rise.”

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The researchers found that since the last ice age the rate ofdeglaciation has beenroughly50 feetper year. Ateight ofthe ice sheet's65 largest glaciers in western Antarctica, where the greatest change is taking place, therate ofdeglaciation is more than five times that rate.

The first-ever complete map of Antarctica's grounding line.

(Hannes Konrad et al, University of Leeds)

The scientists had a bit of good news to share.They found evidence that the ice retreat at Pine Island Glacier, one of the continent's fastest retreating glaciers,has halted.

"These differences emphasize the complex nature of ice sheet instability across the continent, and being able to detect them helps us to pinpoint areas that deserve further investigation," Konrad said.