A study by the British Antarctic Survey has found a 12% increase in the speed of the glaciers from 1993 to 2003 and concluded these glaciers alone contribute about 0.047 mm annually to rising global sea levels.

The new study, which builds on earlier work published in 2005, used more than 2,000 aerial photographs dating from 1940, and over 100 satellite images from the 1960s onwards, to assess the change in position of glaciers over time.

It concluded that eighty-seven percent of the glaciers have been retreating during this period and are now actually speeding up. The Antarctic Peninsula, moreover, has warmed by nearly 3C over the last half-century.