The Science Advances study says the slide began around 2015; sea ice hit record lows in 2022 and 2023, falling to 691,000 square miles in 2023.
Researchers say stronger westerly winds drew warm, salty deep water upward, then a feedback loop from about 2018 kept surface waters too warm and salty for ice to recover.
The study says East Antarctica is driven more by ocean heat and West Antarctica more by atmospheric warming, with risks to ice shelves, ocean carbon storage and global warming if losses persist.
As Antarctic ice vanishes, could a 640-billion-tonne 'carbon bomb' be unleashed from the deep ocean?
Has Antarctica's melting ice flipped a switch, turning a climate stabilizer into a global warming engine?
With a key Atlantic current near collapse, is the world facing an irreversible climate catastrophe by 2050?