The two studies have used slightly different approaches to arrive at their results, both indirect, but over all the numbers indicate that basal losses are larger than calving and that the order of magnitude is the same.

In more detail, the studies show that calving losses are dominant from the larger ice shelves, the Ross and Filchner-Ronne. Melting dominate regions along the western Antarctic Peninsula and down along the coast of the Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas. For most of the East and West Indian Ocean coastlines losses are relatively small and equal between the two processes.

The bottom line is that these studies have changed the perspective from ice loss being predominantly through calving to now slightly dominated by basal melting.