Worried about the effects of global warming, scientists who have been watching the West Antarctic ice sheet for years for signs of melting now say the bigger threat comes from glaciers in Greenland. Scientists fear a rise in the Earth's average temperature could make the oceans rise and swamp low-lying coastal cities in the coming century.
New research suggests Antarctica's second-largest ice sheet is more stable than had been believed.
The glaciers of Greenland, more than 9,000 miles to the north, are more likely to melt with dire consequences as Earth warms up, said Kurt M. Cuffey, a geographer at the University of California, Berkeley.