Doomsday Glacier Bigger Than Florida Might Break Off In The Next Few Years, Warn Scientists
The Thwaites Glacier is holding onto Antarctica’s ice sheet by its fingernails, and the globe might see significant changes over the next year or two, researchers have alerted in a recently released study, CNN reported.
As the world warms, giant sheets of ice near the poles have been melting off. Previously this year, we reported how the Conger Ice Shelf in East Antarctica collapsed in a matter of days. The collapse was even more worrying because it was located in East Antarctica, which was previously assumed to be a strong, immovable block of ice by scientists.
In the short term, climate scientists are eager to learn which other ice shelves and glaciers are at threat of melting, and the Thwaites Glacier is one of the top issues.
The Doomsday Glacier
The Thwaites Glacier is located in West Antarctica and is one of the widest glaciers on the Earth. According to NASA, the entire West Antarctic ice sheet holds adequate water to increase sea levels by 16 feet.
By the mid-1980s, scientists had determined that the glacier was at a huge risk of collapse ever since it was grounded on the seabed rather than dry land. As an outcome, warm ocean currents could melt the glacier from below and destabilize it, even though proof for the same was found only in 2020, CNN said in its report.
A study in 2021 revealed that the Thwaites Ice Shelf that holds the glacier from flowing off into the sea was likewise at risk of shattering in simply five years. The Thwaites Glacier has an area of 74,131 sq. miles (192000 sq kilometres), a little more than the state of Florida, and can single-handedly raise sea levels by several feet. This is why it is also called the ‘doomsday glacier.’
What did the scientists find?
During an extreme 20-hour mission that mapped the underwater region of the Thwaites Glacier, researchers discovered that the glacier was capable of receding at a much faster pace than previously thought.
The mapping also enabled the researchers to peer right into the glacier’s current background in a bid to understand what it might do next. The scientists found that on 2 separate occasions in the past 2 centuries, the glacier has dislodged from the seabed and retreated at the rate of 1.3 miles (2.1 kilometres) per year. This is twice the rate scientists have seen in the past decade.
The scientists are of the opinion that the glacier is holding onto the giant sheet of Antarctic ice by “its finger nails,” and it could recede quickly once it is past the seabed ridge that is keeping it in its place. They further cautioned that these modifications could happen very soon and that we require to prepare for huge changes in a period of time that is as short as a year or two.
Read the original article on Interesting Engineering.
