Arctic sea ice is getting thinner at a far more rapid rate than researchers had earlier thought, according to a new study.

Using modern and historic measurements, researchers got an extensive view of how the thickness of Arctic sea ice has changed over the past few decades. According to measurements from multiple sources, the ice in the central Arctic Ocean thinned 65 percent between 1975 and 2012, from 11.7 feet (3.59 meters) to 4.1 feet (1.25 m).

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In the new study, lead author Ron Lindsay tried to resolve some of those differences in what Lindsay called "an attempt to get all the ice thickness measurements into one place." He said the goal is to obtain a broad picture of the activities of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean and is based more on observations than on a model.

Lindsay said the ice is thinning dramatically, adding they knew the ice was thinning, but we now have additional confirmation on how fast, and we can see that it's not slowing down.

The study is the first to combine all available observations of Arctic sea ice thickness and highlights how much the climate has really changed in recent decades.

The reduction in the sea-ice extent lets ice-free waters become more turbulent and these may have been causing changes in the chemistry, circulation and the environment in the Arctic Ocean. Scientists at the National Oceanography Centre and the University of Portsmouth have conducted an investigation on this using recent information gathered by a Royal Navy submarine.

The findings were published in the journal, The Cryosphere.

TagsArctic Ocean, Arctic, Arctic Ice, sea ice, global warming, Arctic sea ice thickness, Ice, sea ice