"Polar ice sheets have grown and collapsed at least 40 times over the past five million years, causing major sea-level fluctuations," says Tim Naish, deputy director of Victoria University's Antarctic Research Centre (ARC).

"Evidence shows that this sheet is expected to melt first, along with Greenland. West Antarctica sits below sea level, so as the ocean warms, the ice sheet also warms," says Naish.

"One way to understand this is to use the paleoclimate record to go back to a time when the earth was warmer and to see how West Antarctica behaved.

"We know that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere were slightly above what they are now, and the earth was two to three degrees warmer. When the West Antarctica ice sheet collapsed numerous times, it raised sea levels by up to 10 metres," Naish said, according to an ARC release.

"In the past, these climate changes were happening naturally but now we've accelerated this process, the greenhouse gases are rising and temperatures are rising faster than they ever have in the past.

"It's one of the big issues of our time and it will have a profound effect on our future society," Naish concluded.