The study included data on about half of all Andean glaciers and blamed the melting on an average temperature rise of 0.7C from 1950-1994.

BBC: Massive melting of Andes glaciers

Such increased summer melting has an immediate local temperature effect, and it also will affect sea level.

FORBES: Breaking News: The Climate Actually Changes!

However, scientists do not fully understand the relationship between air and sea temperature, and the melting of ice.

BBC: Polar expedition to study Antarctica's climate history

The ice, poised between freezing and melting, is an especially sensitive indicator of the planet's temperature.

ECONOMIST: An imminent answer to an Arctic riddle