According to an international team of experts, the melting of Antarctica is accelerating at an alarming rate, and some 3 billion tons of ice have disappeared since 1992.
In the last quarter of a century, the ice cap of the southernmost continent -a crucial indicator of climate change- became water in sufficient quantity to cover an area of almost 700 thousand square kilometers, equivalent to the state of Texas, under 4 meters (13 feet), according to the calculations.
That water caused a rise of 7.6 millimeters in the level of the global oceans.
Between 1992 and 2011, Antarctica lost nearly 84 billion tons (76 billion metric tons) of ice per year.
From 2012 to 2017, the melt rate increased to 241 billion tons per year, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Part of western Antarctica, where most of the melting occurred, "is in a calamitous state," said Ian Joughin of the University of Washington, another of the authors.