Study: Ice Sheets Lost 11.3 Trillion Tons Since 1979
The record shows most of the loss came from faster glacier discharge, and scientists say the ice sheets now drive about a quarter of sea-level rise.
- On Wednesday, September 16, 2026, researchers published a study in Scientific Data revealing that Greenland and Antarctica have lost 11.3 trillion tons of ice since 1979, driving significant global sea level rise.
- Lead study author Ines Otosaka of Northumbria University explained that 84% of ice loss stems from glaciers discharging into the ocean, with only 16% from surface melting driven by atmospheric temperatures.
- The international team utilized data from 27 satellites across 45 independent surveys, finding that Greenland's annual ice loss surged from 60 billion metric tons in the 1980s to 264 billion metric tons in the 2010s.
- This melting raised global average sea levels by 3cm, prompting co-author Professor Andrew Shepherd to warn that the rise puts "another six to nine million people at risk of coastal flooding and erosion."
- Despite a temporary slowdown between 2020 and 2023 caused by weather variations, Otosaka warned of potential "tipping points" as the long-term trend remains driven by warming oceans accelerating ice sheet discharge.
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165 Articles
In 70 years, the lost ice has raised the sea level by 3 cm. Discover the data and challenges of research on climate change.
It's frozen water to stack a 1.5 meter thick ice sheet across the continental United States.
Since the 1990s, ice loss in Greenland and Antarctica has increased significantly. Its impact on sea level rise is enormous – and exposes millions of people to the risk of coastal flooding.
It has been revealed that the total mass of ice sheets that have melted and disappeared in Antarctica and Greenland since 1979 amounts to 11.309 trillion tons, causing global sea levels to rise by 3 cm. In particular, the amount of melting ice flowing into the sea is overwhelmingly greater than the amount that melts from the glacier surface.
The Earth's two large ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica have lost more than 11 trillion tons of ice over the past 50 years – thus increasing sea levels by 3.14 centimeters by 2023.
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