Ice Melt at The Poles Is Now Causing Hidden Changes to Earth's Crust on a Huge Scale - ScienceAlert

As the polar ice sheets melt, the process is not just raising sea levels – it's also warping the underlying surface of Earth, a new study reveals, and some of the effects can be seen across thousands of miles.

These crust rebounds can actually take thousands of years – the study notes that some changes are still being felt across Earth's surface from the end of the last ice age, some 11,000 years ago.

And with the rate of ice melt continuing to increase across the globe, it's important that scientists are able to figure out what impact it's having on the shape of Earth's surface, even if the shifts are relatively small each year.

"Understanding all of the factors that cause movement of the crust is really important for a wide range of Earth science problems," says Coulson