An antarctic glacier twice the size of Scotland is losing ice more quickly than it was a decade ago, scientists warned yesterday. Satellite records show the Pine Island Glacier in west Antarctica is thinning four times as quickly as it was 10 years ago.

An antarctic glacier twice the size of Scotland is losing ice more quickly than it was a decade ago, scientists warned yesterday.

Satellite records show the Pine Island Glacier in west Antarctica is thinning four times as quickly as it was 10 years ago.

And researchers believe that if melting carries on accelerating at current rates, the main section of the glacier will have disappeared in 100 years - six times faster than was previously estimated by scientists.

The thinning of the glacier is thought to be caused by warmer surrounding seas, which could be caused by climate change or a shift in a current bringing warm water to the region - which could in turn stem from changes in the climate.

The 5,400km area of thinning glacier contains enough water to raise sea levels by three centimetres, Professor Andrew Shepherd of the University of Leeds said, but the glacier's melting could also expose stationary ice behind it to warm sea water.

If that ice were to melt, it could raise sea levels by another 25cm.

The research, led by Professor Duncan Wingham at University College London and published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, tracked the remote glacier's development using continuous satellite measurements over the past 15 years.

Professor Wingham said: "Being able to assemble a continuous record of measurements over the past decade and a half has provided us with the remarkable ability to identify both subtle and dramatic changes in ice that were previously hidden."

As the moving glacier melts, he said, it would expose the stationary ice behind it, so that ice would effectively become the glacier and be exposed to the same effects of the warm sea temperature.

Professor Wingham added: "Because the Pine Island Glacier contains enough ice to almost double the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's best estimate of 21st century sea-level rise, the manner in which the glacier will respond to the accelerated thinning is a matter of great concern."