PARIS: The East Antarctic ice sheet, once seen as largely unaffected by global warming, is melting faster than expected and could boost sea levels, threatening the world's major port cities, two separate reports have warned.

In a study published in Nature Geoscience, scientists from the University of Texas said the East Antarctic ice sheet has been losing billions of tonnes of ice for the last three years.

The authors said they are 'surprised' by the finding, because the giant East Antarctic sheet, unlike the smaller West Antarctic ice sheet, has been thought to be stable or in 'balance', meaning that it accumulated as much mass as it gave off, perhaps a bit more.

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