Underwater melting of Antarctic ice far greater than thought, study finds

The base of the ice around the south pole shrank by 1,463 square kilometres between 2010 and 2016

Hidden underwater melt-off in the Antarctic is doubling every 20 years and could soon overtake Greenland to become the biggest source of sea-level rise, according to the first complete underwater map of the world's largest body of ice.

Warming waters have caused the base of ice near the ocean floor around the south pole to shrink by 1,463 square kilometres - an area the size of Greater London - between 2010 and 2016, according to the new study published in Nature Geoscience.