Global sea levels may rise faster than previously expected. The reason is that warming oceans appear to be melting #Antarctic ice shelves from below much more rapidly than expected. Ice shelves, which are extensions of gigantic #glaciers that float on the water surface, act like buttresses that slow the flow of gigatons of ice into the sea. Now, researchers have discovered that long, channel-like grooves on the underside of these ice shelves can trap relatively warm ocean water, sharply increasing local melting. f Antarctic ice shelves thin and weaken, the downhill journey of the ice behind them can accelerate, fast-forwarding the process in which huge amounts of ice cascade into the ocean, causing sea levels worldwide to rise far faster than currently projected. #climate https://phys.org/news/2026-05-rapidly-antarctic-ice-shelves-global.html Paper by Zhou et al. (2026): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-71828-8