Researchers studying ‘doomsday glacier’ make worrying discovery

(NEXSTAR) – Antarctica’s “terminal glacier,” so-called because it has the potential to dramatically raise global sea levels, is doing more than we think thanks to warm ocean water passing beneath it. A new study has revealed that it melts faster.

Researchers led by glaciologists from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) said: study Thwaites Glacier may be collapsing “much faster” than previously thought, according to a paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This Florida-sized glacier on the Amundsen Sea has been nicknamed the “Glacier of the End” because of its abundance and the height of sea level it would raise if all the ice melted. Year.

Thwaites is located in the western half of Antarctica, east of the protruding Antarctic Peninsula, and was once the area of ​​greatest concern to scientists.

Experts have long feared that Thwaites Glacier could disappear due to seawater causing it to collapse, the glacier becoming unmoored to the ocean floor, or the ice pack cracking.

The research team used satellites and a technology called radar interferometry to track changes in surface elevation, showing that pressurized tidewater travels many miles beneath glaciers and moves farther inland than previously thought. and discovered that the glacier appeared to have been lifted several centimeters.

“In some places, the pressure of the water is almost equal to the pressure of the overlying ice, so a little more pressure is needed to push the ice up,” said lead author Eric Rignotto, a professor at UCI. Said. “The water is then squeezed enough to jack up an icicle more than half a mile long.”

Warm ocean water moving beneath glaciers could help explain “the rapid, past and present changes in ice sheet mass, as well as the gradual changes reproduced by ice sheet models,” the study said. , added that the pressurized seawater would “cause intense melting,” which would further endanger the glaciers.

“Thwaites is the most unstable place in Antarctica, equivalent to 60 centimeters of sea level rise,” co-author Christine Dow, a professor in the School of Environment at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, told UCI News. “The worry is that we are underestimating the speed at which glaciers are changing, which will have devastating effects on coastal communities around the world.”

Dow said it’s not yet clear how much time is left before the damage to the glaciers caused by seawater becomes irreversible, but he hopes the discovery will lead to more accurate models. .

“It will take decades, not centuries, for Thwaites Glacier to completely melt,” Rignot said. USA Today. “Part of the answer also depends on whether the climate continues to warm. That depends entirely on us and how we manage the planet.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.