. A report by Rignot and Pannir Kanagaratnam of the University of Kansas appears Friday in the journal Science.

Gino Casassa, who studies glaciers at Chile's Centro de Estudios Cientificos, called the study a "major finding," since it may provide a missing link to the understanding of shrinking glaciers in Antarctica, Patagonia, Alaska and elsewhere around the globe. Previous studies have only hinted that increased flow rates played such a prominent role, Casassa said.

"This is the first time, with hard data, to conclude this," he said.

Rignot and Kanagaratnam believe warmer temperatures boost the amount of melt water that reaches where the glaciers flow over rock. That extra water lubricates the rivers of ice and eases their downhill movement toward the Atlantic. They tracked the speeds of the glaciers from space, using satellite data collected between 1996 and 2005.