GLACIER loss in the west Antarctic appears “unstoppable,” researchers at NASA and the University of California warned today.

Evidence including 40 years of observations indicated that the glaciers in the Amundsen Sea sector of west Antarctica “have passed the point of no return,” according to glaciologist Eric Rignot.

The glaciers contain enough ice to raise global sea levels by around four feet and are melting more quickly than scientists had originally predicted.

The biggest glaciers are hemorrhaging ice without any way to stem the loss, according to the two independent studies. 

The unstoppable retreat is likely to be the start of a long-feared domino effect that could cause the entire ice sheet to melt, whether or not greenhouse gas emissions decline.

“These glaciers will keep retreating for decades and even centuries and we can’t stop it,” said Mr Rignot. 

“A large sector of the west Antarctic ice sheet has passed the point of no return.”

The ice sheet holds 10 per cent of Antarctica’s ice.

The retreating glaciers pin back the ice sheet and their collapse threatens the entire west Antarctic sheet.

This means that in coming decades, sea-level rise is likely to exceed this century’s projected increase of three feet by 2100 issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

However, if all of West Antarctica melted, the collapse could raise sea levels by 11 to 13 feet.

The Antarctic peninsula has been warming rapidly for at least half a century, and west Antarctica has heating up for 30 years.