A key glacier in Antarctica that bounds the West Antarctica ice sheet is breaking from inside out. Researchers suggesting that warming ocean water weakens the coastal ice shelf from the beneath.

The Pine Island Glacier, part of the ice shelf that bounds the west Antarctic Ice sheet, is one of the two glaciers that scientists believe Pine Island Glacier cracked from the inside out is a sign that the ice is still melting.

The new study report from Ohio State University has suggested, if this is likely to continue that can raise the sea level.

A massive iceberg cleaved from Pine Island Glacier in 2015, one of the two major glaciers that make the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The image was first analyzed by Ohio State University scientists revealed a rift forming 20 miles inland two years prior to the breakaway.

According to LIVE SCIENCE, the rift propagated a 225-square-mile iceberg broke off from the glacier in 2015. Though, the researchers from Ohio University scientists have identified something strange image from satellite.

"This kind of rifting behavior provides another mechanism for rapid retreat of these glaciers, adding to the probability that we may see a significant collapse in our lifetime," said by the associate professor of earth science at Ohio State University Ian Howat.

Researchers have observed inland cleaving in Greenland. The latest research that is published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters suggests a similar pattern of rifting is happening in Antarctica.

The breaking of ice part implies that something weakened the center of the ice shelf, may be warming ocean water weakens the coastal ice shelf from the beneath, reported by Journal from Geophysical Research.

The rift found in at the bottom of Glacial Valley. Scientists predict ocean water may have infiltrated deep inland sit below sea level and began eroding the ice shelf from below.

On Nov. 4, Scientists identified a newly formed rift on the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf during an aerial survey.

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