• Question: how much ice melts in the antartica per day?

    Asked by samandaashishlgs to Carys on 14 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by mattandsam, willandsasha35646, toesandfingers.
    • Photo: Carys Cook

      Carys Cook answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hi there. Well, Antarctica’s ice is constantly gaining and melting ice at the same time – ice melts around its perimeter where it meets the warmer ocean, and snow falls in the center. The balance between the two is called the ice sheets ‘mass balance’. Today, Antarctica is losing more ice than gaining, but the amount is very difficult to estimate because the length of its coastline is sooooo massive, nearly 12,500 miles! Thats the distance from London to South Africa. One estimate is that Antarctica is losing around 20km cubed per year, or 20,000,000,000,000 litres, so that would work out to be 547,945,220,547 litres per day! Hope that answers your question!! 😉

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