God promises Noah that "the waters shall never again become a flood." But scientists studying global warming in the Antarctic warn that worldwide sea levels may rise much more quickly than previously projected, causing widespread flooding. Antarctic glaciers are melting faster across a much wider area than previously thought, they said Wednesday.

Previously most of the warming was thought to occur on the narrow stretch pointing toward South America, said Colin Summerhayes, executive director of the Britain-based Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. But satellite data and automated weather stations indicate otherwise. "The warming we see in the peninsula also extends all the way down to what is called west Antarctica," Summerhayes said. "That's unusual and unexpected."

The biggest west Antarctic glacier, the Pine Island Glacier, is moving 40 percent faster than it was in the 1970s, discharging water and ice more rapidly into the ocean, said Summerhayes. The Smith Glacier, also in west Antarctica, is moving 83 percent faster than it did in 1992, he said.

All the glaciers in the area together are losing a total of around 114 billion tons per year. "That's equivalent to the current mass loss from the whole of the Greenland ice sheet," said Summerhayes.

Source: An article by Eliane Engeler for the Associated Press