Mexico City: Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier—known as the Doomsday Glacier—is leaking warm water through its weak spots and rising temperatures are worsening melting conditions, according to two papers published in the journal Nature. Nature Journal, screened on Wednesday.
Thwaites, which is roughly the size of Florida, represents more than half a meter (1.6 feet) of global sea level rise potential, and could destabilize neighboring glaciers that could lead to a further three-metre (9.8-foot) rise. may cause.
As part of the international Thwaites Glacier Collaboration – the largest field expedition ever undertaken in Antarctica – a team of 13 American and British scientists spent approximately six weeks on the glacier in late 2019 and early 2020.
Using an underwater robotic vehicle known as an icefin, mooring data and sensors, they monitored the glacier’s grounding line, where ice slides off the glacier and meets the ocean for the first time.
In a paper led by Cornell University-based scientist Brittany Schmidt, the researchers found that warm water was making its way into cracks and other vents known as terraces, causing precipitation of 30 meters (98 feet) or more per year. melts away.
“Warm water is coming into the weakest parts of the glacier and making it worse,” Schmidt told Reuters.
“This is the kind of thing we should all be very concerned about,” she said of the findings that underscore how climate change is reaching isolated Antarctica.
The findings of the second paper, on which Schmidt also worked, showed about five meters (16 feet) of melt per year near the glacier’s grounding line – less than predicted by the most aggressive thinning models.
But she said the thaw is still a serious concern.
“If we see less melting … that doesn’t change the fact that it’s retreating,” Schmidt said.
Scientists previously relied on satellite images to show the behavior of the ice, which made it difficult to capture fine details. The papers present, for the first time, a team leading a major glacier’s grounding line to take a look at “where the action begins,” Schmidt said.
The findings will aid in the development of climate change models, said Paul Cutler, program director for Antarctic science at the National Science Foundation. He reviewed the papers but was not involved in the research.
“These things can now be incorporated into models that will predict future behavior, and that was really the goal of this work,” he said.
(This story has been refined to change ‘censored’ to ‘censored’ in paragraph 4)
(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Helen Popper)
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