Scientists also use the simulation method to find out the fluctuating dynamics of ice-sea relationships over the past 40,000 years. Now, during the past 20,000 years, the ice sheets of Antarctica have gone through various episodes of quick melting. Scientists call these various melting phases “meltwater pulses”. They maintain that the Antarctica ice sheet is seemingly stable even after having undergone myriad changes. Ice sheets must have weighed much more than 26 million gigatons and would have spread beyond 14 million square kilometers, as they are now.