Major cities could be underwater 'in our lifetimes' because of melting ice shelf

The horrible traffic in both New York City and London may be the least of their problems considering new findings suggest they could be underwater in our lifetimes because of a key glacier in West Antarctic.

Resarchers warn the ice shelf is breaking up from the inside out, and could soon melt and flood coastlines around the world.

A giant 225-square-mile iceberg broke off from the Pine Island Glacier in 2015.

That key glacier is part of the ice shelf that bounds the West Antarctic ice sheet.

But thanks to new image-processing software, Ohio State University researchers noticed an even bigger problem than the iceberg breaking off.

They saw evidence that a rift formed at the base of the ice shelf; 20 miles inland.

Rifts usually form at the outer margins of an ice shelf.

Their theory; the center of the ice shelf was melted out by a warming ocean.

The inland rift is a sign the largest ice reserve in the world could be melting sooner than later.

Studies have already suggested the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is unstable and could collapse within the next 100 years; causing sea levels to rise nearly 10 feet.

Translation, many major U.S. cities would be underwater, displacing 150 million people living in coastal areas.

Researchers say they're limited to the kind of info they get from satellite images, and plan on doing fieldwork to get more observations of how the rifts and valleys form.

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