Antarctica Ice on the Rise

 

The American space agency NASA has recently found out that Antarctica's ice sheet is growing.  Satellite images show that between 1992 and 2001 ice on the southernmost continent grew at a rate of  112 billion tons a year. After that the ice sheets still became bigger, but at a slower pace.

The new discovery comes at a time when many scientists claim that, due to global warming, the ice on Earth is melting away. In another discovery, scientists have found out that some parts of Antarctica are becoming higher, but they say this is because of more snowfall in the area.

According to NASA, global warming has led to rising temperatures, thus making it possible for more snow to fall on the continent. As a result the snow becomes more compact and eventually turns into ice. In the future NASA hopes to measure ice thickness more exactly  when they plan to launch new satellites into space by 2018.

 

 

 

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Words

  • according to = as said by ...
  • claim = to say that something is true
  • discovery = when you find important information for the first time
  • due to = because of
  • eventually = slowly
  • ice sheet = cover of ice over an area of land
  • launch = start, send
  • measure = to find the size or length of something
  • pace = speed
  • rate = speed
  • recently = only a short time ago
  • southernmost = furthest south
  • space agency = organization that controls the launching of spacecraft in a country
  • thus = that is why