Discovery of high geothermal heat underneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has become a major concern for scientists after the global warming, which is responsible to the melting of ice sheets and the rise in sea level worldwide.

Lead author Andrew Fisher, professor of Earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa Cruz, during the study looked at temperatures underneath Subglacial Lake Whillans, which is a half-mile beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Some other recently conducted studies indicate that it is one of several ice sheets on the continent that have started to melt at an incredibly fast pace that is worrying scientists.

It has been said that the geothermal heat flux measured by Fisher and his team is roughly 285 milliwats. The heat flux might not sound significant, but it is one more source of heat for an already fragile ice sheet.

Fisher said, "The geothermal heat could help explain why the ice sheet is so unstable. When you add the effects of global warming, things can start to change quickly".

Fisher stressed on the point that the geothermal heat alone is not the reason for the rapid loss of ice from West Antarctica.

Scientists hope that now after knowing the amount of added heat to which the ice sheet is being exposed from underneath they can determine how quickly the ice sheet is melting and what impact it may have on the rise in sea level.

West Antarctica is considered as the most vulnerable place to melting as compared to another ice sheets on the continent due to its location below sea level.

Researchers said rising temperatures and additional heat coming from below earth's surface, the melting of the ice sheet could accelerate, is making Antarctica far more problematic than the North Pole in regards to the impact melting ice sheets will have on the world.