Scientists investigating the rapid increase in movement of Antarctic glaciers have found that underwater volcanoes are heating water and increasing ice melt.

The segment of ice in danger has six major glaciers that are facing major collapse.  If the area completely melts, the entire global sea level will rise at least four feet.  (A collapse is considered the point when a glacier starts an unstoppable retreat that would drop millions of tons of ice into the sea.)

Dustin Schroeder of the University of Texas at Austin says that volcanoes and “other geothermal hotspots” are driving the melting of the glaciers and recent studies are showing there is no way to stop the eventual collapse of the glaciers.  The challenge to scientists is to accurately estimate if it will take hundreds of years or thousands for the glaciers to be completely destroyed.

The problem with predicting the outcome is that computer models cannot accurate anticipate the volcanic activity taking place under the ice sheet.  Much of the area is unexplored and unmapped, as a new under-ice volcano was discovered in 2013.

One of the hottest points is around Mount Takahe, a volcano that actually has broken through the ice sheet.  There are smaller volcanoes and vents that increase the temperature of the water as much as three times the level of sea water under other parts of the continent.

Schroeder said the scientists believe the extra melt from the volcanoes lubricates the ice sheets from beneath and accelerates their slide toward the open water.