The melting of the continental ice, is a long-term seasonal phenomena, that will eventually modify the Antarctic geography. Its consequences for the world may be chaotic, due to the rise in the level of the oceans.

The importance of the Antarctica is such that it represents about 90 percent of the world's ice and about 70 percent of the fresh water resources. It is a landmass with a bedrock covered by a sheet of ice. There are two masses supposedly united by a narrowing: one is called West Antarctica, the other East Antarctica.

The whole continent is surrounded by a changing mass of ice (oceanic ice). The extension and thickness of this mass of ice grows annually. If the occidental ice melted, the sea level would rise 1.5 - 5,5 metres. But, if the entire Antarctic ice -both the west and east ice- melted, the sea level would rise about 70 metres, causing an unprecedented catastrophe in the world. A large glacial formation in the Antarctica has reduced its size at a constant rhythm during the last eight years.

There are indications that a glacial in the Isle of Pines, located on the Occidental Antarctica, is reducing its size so quickly that it can become an iceberg in only 600 years. Satellite-screened glacial observation from 1992 to 1999 revealed a loss of some 31 cubic kilometres in that period, at a rate of 4,000 million tons per year.

The melting of that volume of ice into water means a yearly increase of 0,1 millimetres of the level of the sea. The western ice-mass has been studied systematically because its total melting might cause the sea to gain some five metres.

Eventual consequences of coastal ice warming also affect the inner land in which the largest parts of Antarctic ice are located. It is forecasted that more than one quarter of the actual glaciers may disappear in 2050 and more than half of it in 2100, when ice formations will only be found in Alaska, the Patagonia in southern Argentina, and the Himalayas on the north of the Indian peninsula.

Reflection of light from the sun by ice is a counter-effect of global warming. When ice melts, the surface of the earth and of the water is exposed and overheats, thus causing thawing, in a process that gets worse with the passing of time.

The glacier located on the Isle of Pines, is not an isolated case. A phenomenon is happening with the glaciers Ninis and Mertz. The fast melting of the barrier of ice Larsen on the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.

But the ice fusion does not happen in the Antarctica only; in the barrier of ice of the Ross Sea, in the Australian quadrant, the phenomena has had antecedents. Causes are complex - one of them is global warming. Since the 1940's, there has been a rise in temperature of approximately 2.5°C (4,5°F).