International News

PARIS, Oct 25 (APP/AFP): A large glacier in West Antarctica lost up to half a kilometre in thickness in seven years, thinning more quickly than scientists thought possible, according to a study released Tuesday. The Smith Glacier, spilling into the Amundsen Sea, shed up to 70 metres (230 feet) per year between 2002 and 2009, according to the study, based on NASA data collected during aerial flyovers. “If I had been using data from only one instrument, I wouldn’t have believed what I was looking at because the thinning was so large,” said lead author Ala Khazendar, a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Ice-penetrating radar and laser altimetry both yielded the same results, he reported in Nature Communications. After 2009, Smith continued to shed mass, though at a slightly slower pace, Khazendar told AFP. Earlier studies using less precise techniques estimated that two ice