Antarctic ice reaches record level, but is global warming to blame?

The Antarctic ice sheets have spread farther than any other time in modern, recorded history, according to scientists monitoring their spread. Scientists are unsure of exactly why the sheets are growing but that global warming likely has a role.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The Antarctic sea ice reached a new peak on September 20, spreading farther than any other time since records were kept beginning in 1979. The ice extended to a record of 7.78 million miles.

Contrary to intuition however, scientists are not looking at this as evidence that the planet is cooling, but rather that it is warming. In addition to an overall loss of ice on the planetary scale, Antarctica is also thinning dramatically, causing sea ice to spread on the fringes. Eventually those fringes melt and contribute to sea level rise.

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However, some parts of Antarctica are in fact colder and the ice is thickening. Scientists are also saying this is related to global warming because some areas will experience colder temperatures as weather patterns shift and change.

Claire Parkinson, described by the Daily Mail as a "senior scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center" attributed the expanded ice to climate change. "The planet as a whole is doing what was expected in terms of warming," she told the Daily Mail. "Sea ice as a whole is decreasing as expected, but just like with global warming, not every location with sea ice will have a downward trend in ice extent."

Some scientists have compared the expansion of the ice to a melting ice cream cone dropped on the pavement. As it melts, the ice cream spreads over a wider area, thinning along the way. The difference in the Antarctic is that eventually that ice, some of which spread off the continent, melts in the ocean and contributes to sea level rise.

Other scientists say that it's impossible to say precisely what mechanism is to blame for the expansion of the ice. They cite currents, weather patterns, and other causes to the phenomenon. The shape of the continent and its sheer size are also thought to be major factors.

"Part of it is just the geography and geometry. With no northern barrier around the whole perimeter of the ice, the ice can easily expand if conditions are favorable," Walt Meier, another research scientist at Goddard said.

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