The loss of ice due to climate change in Antarctica is causing the once buoyant continent to be heaven-bound.

Donald Argus of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and colleagues used 15 years of GPS data to show that parts of the Ellsworth mountains in west Antarctica are rising by around 5 mm a year, reports New Scientist.

A faster rise has been seen in Greenland, which is said to be rising up by 4 cm a year.

Climate change may be partly to blame for this situation. Antarctica lost about 200 gigatons per year of ice, and Greenland, 300 gigatons.

But there is another possible contributor. “The Earth has a very long memory,” says Argus. As a result, “there is also a viscous response to ice loss from around 5000 to 10,000 years ago going on,” he added.