The Thwaites Glacier, also known as the “glacier at the end of the world” due to its high risk of collapse and threat to global sea level rise, could melt faster than expected, scientists reported in a new study published in Nature Geoscience.
Researchers deployed an advanced robotic submarine to gain new insights into the glacier and found bad news.
Glacier the size of Florida is in trouble. All of Earth’s ice is threatened by climate change, but Thwaites is even more problematic because its underwater base is also eroding.
Your fusion rate is accelerating, with your speed of outflow doubling in the last 30 years and some studies suggest it could be only a few years away from collapsing. Now, scientists have mapped its historical retreat, trying to anticipate what will happen to the glacier in the future and how this will affect the world.
Here is the 3D mapping of Thwaites:
Researchers found that at some point in the last two centuries, the base of the glacier broke free of the seabed and retreated at a rate of 2.1 kilometers (1.3 miles) per year. That’s double the rate scientists have seen in the past decade, suggesting Thwaites could experience a rapid reversal in the near future, the study argued. is grasping with its fingernails, and we should expect to see big changes on small timescales in the future, even from one year to the next, once the glacier recedes beyond a shallow ridge in its bed,” marine geophysicist and said in a statement the co-author of the study, Robert Larter, of the British Antarctic Survey.
A map of the seabed of the glacier.
For the first time, the The researchers mapped a critical area of seafloor in front of the glacier in high resolution, giving them insight into how Thwaites moved in the past. The camera shows geological features that were previously unknown and offers a kind of crystal ball that can help us predict the future of Thwaites.
Researchers documented more than 160 parallel ridges that were created as the edge of the glacier receded and rose and fell with the daily tides. To collect the images, the team launched a state-of-the-art robotic vehicle called Rán loaded with imaging sensors during an expedition in 2019.
Rán embarked on a mission of hours to map the seabed and produced images like never before. seen the characteristics of the glacier.
Researchers compared ridge formations to tidal cycles and found that each of these ribs probably formed every day.
This allowed us to draw conclusions about the date of the withdrawal, estimating that at some point in the last 200 years, Thwaites retreated at a speed of about 2.1 km, twice the retreat measured by satellites between 1024 Y 2019.
Also read:
· Antarctica’s “Doomsday Glacier” could collapse in 3 years and raise sea levels
Why scientists warn that a glacier the size of the United Kingdom is “the most world”
An animated view shows a rapidly shrinking glacier at the South Pole