Several large tidewater outlet glaciers of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets now appear to exhibit a nearly universal signature of recent increased discharge to the ocean. That this increase is occurring in the Northern and Southern hemispheres suggests a common cause. The culprit may be additional heat delivered by subsurface waters melting the submarine bases of these glaciers. This scenario would explain the observations and at the same time provide evidence that warmer subsurface waters arereaching the Earth's polar latitudes. Moreover, it indicates that the ocean plays a more critical role than the atmosphere in determining near-term glaciological contributions to changes in sea level.
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