Global Warming Could Lead to the Melting of More Than a Third of Antarctic Ice Shelves Details Share This Since the early 2000s, scientists have observed that the Antarctic ice sheet is losing mass at a rate that is accelerating. Since the early 2000s, scientists have observed that the Antarctic ice sheet is losing mass at a rate that is accelerating. The ice sheet is a very thick expanse of ice that can cover an entire continent. There are only two ice sheets on Earth: the Greenland ice sheet, which is limited to the land cover, and the Antarctic ice sheet, which extends beyond the continent into the ocean to form large floating platforms. “These ice shelves act like dams and keep the ice on the continent," explains Christoph Kittel, a researcher at the ULiège Climatology Laboratory (SPHERES research unit / Faculty of Science) and co-author of the study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters (1). Without these platforms, huge amounts of ice would flow directly into the ocean, leading to a consequent rise in sea levels.”