An unknown island has been spotted in the South after ice melted due to high temperatures.
Scientists from the offshore research group Thwaites (THORS) discovered the island's rocky shore as their ship passed through pine Island Bay, according to Daily Mail.
The newly discovered island was named Sif by the research team, the name of the Norse goddess of reproduction and family, wife of the war god thor.
Researchers on the Nathaniel B. Palmer ship are currently studying the Thwaites ice in the Philippine Gulf, one of the fastest melting ice in the South.
The team did not know how long the island had been discovered, but thought the obvious reason for the island was due to high temperatures caused by climate change.
The area of Sif is not large enough to be seen from space. The UK's Arctic survey donean estimate the granite island to be nearly 60,000 square meters.
Researchers hope to reveal more about the island and how it was revealed before the survey ends in late March.
According to researchers, ships rarely travel as far south as Nathaniel B. Palmer, so the crew were probably the first to explore the island and possibly the first to set foot on the rocky banks of Sif Island.
During research on the Thwaites ice sheet, scientists discovered warm waters under the ice sheet earlier this year.
"The warm waters in this remote part of the world will serve as a warning to all of us about the terrible changes to the planet brought by climate change," USA Today quoted David Dutch, director of a laboratory at New York University, the unit conducting the study, as saying.
"If these waters are causing ice melt in the South, it will lead to changes in sea levels that can be detected in many areas with residents in the world," he added.
With an area of about 191,659 km2, the ice is equivalent to the state of Florida, USA and is particularly sensitive to climate change and the ocean, according to the International Cooperation Agency for the Thwaites ice.
This river is known as the "end of the world". The Thwaites are currently one of the fastest melting areas in the South, Live Science said.
Many scientists consider the Thwaites ice sheet to be one of the most important and vulnerable ice continents to contribute to future global sea level increases. The melting of ice and ice will increase global sea levels, possibly overwhelming areas with existing residents, according to New York University.
Over the past 30 years, the amount of melted ice from the Thwaites and its adjacent rivers has nearly doubled. In addition, ice flowing from the Thwaites into the Amundsen Sea accounts for about 4% of the sea level rising globally.
A complete melt of the ice could lead to an increase of about 0.6m in sea level, and scientists want to find out how quickly this could happen.
"We understand that warming ocean waters are eroding many ice covers in the southwest of the Arctic, but we are particularly interested in the Thwaites," said Keith Nicholls, an oceanologist at the British Arctic survey.
The latest data will provide a new perspective on the ongoing process to make predictions about future change with a more solid foundation, he said.
Scientists have been taking measurements since early January after the team created a nearly 600m deep hole and deployed an ocean sensitive device to measure the temperature of water moving under the ice.
