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Himalayan glaciers have lost ice 10 times more quickly over the last few decades than on average since the last major glacier expansion 400-700 years ago, a period known as the "Little Ice Age", a study has said. It warned that accelerating melting of the Himalayan glaciers threatens the water supply of millions of people in Asia. The Himalayan range is home to the world's third-largest amount of glacier ice, after Antarctica and the Arctic, and is often referred to as "The Third Pole". The study, led by the University of Leeds, also points out that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking far more rapidly than glaciers in other parts of the world, a rate of loss the researchers describe as "exceptional" as they lost around 40 per cent of their area.