According to a new 2023 study, the total area of Antarctic ice shelves increased by approximately 5,305 km² (about 0.4%) between 2009 and 2019, as the growth of the largest ice shelves in East Antarctica outweighed concurrent losses from ice shelves in West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula.
29 Jan 2024 — This seasonal expansion causes the area covered by sea ice to grow six-fold within a single year –
From the start of satellite observations in 1979 to 2014, total Antarctic sea ice increased by about 1 percent per decade.
How many years until Antarctica melts?
The loss of the entire ice sheet would require global warming in a range between 5 °C (9.0 °F) and 10 °C (18 °F), and a minimum of 10,000 years.
Antarctica hasn't always been covered with ice – the continent lay over the south pole without freezing over for almost 100 million years. Then, about 34 million years ago, a dramatic shift in climate happened at the boundary between the Eocene and Oligocene epochs. ...
From above, Antarctica might seem like a cold, flat and desolate landscape — and it certainly is. But beneath the ice sheet lies an entire hidden world: Scientists have discovered diverse biomes, hidden rivers and lakes, mountains and valleys, primordial bacteria, and even the remnants of ancient ecosystems. 12 May 2025
90 million years ago, during the mid-Cretaceous period, Antarctica was a temperate rainforest, not a jungle. Fossil evidence, including plant roots and pollen, indicates a lush, swampy forest existed near the South Pole, even with the extended darkness of polar winter.
*** The Earth, as a planet, is expected to be habitable for billions of years, far longer than humanity's lifespan. However, the conditions for human life will change dramatically over the next few billion years due to the Sun's increasing luminosity. Humans will likely be unable to survive on Earth in a few billion years due to extreme heat and humidity, according to Live Science. The Earth itself will eventually be absorbed by the Sun as it enters its red giant phase.
