Thwaites doomsday glacier

2022 - 9 - 6

Post cover — Image courtesy of "The Washington Post"

A 'doomsday glacier' the size of Florida is disintegrating faster than ... (The Washington Post)

A large glacier in Antarctica that could raise sea levels by several feet is disintegrating faster than last predicted, according to a new study published ...

Thwaites already accounts for about 4 percent of annual sea level rise. Satellite images taken late last year revealed that an ice shelf used to stabilize the eastern portion of the Thwaites Glacier showed signs of cracking — what scientists say could lead to a “spiderweb” effect across the entire wedge, if hit with strong winds, according to According to a news release accompanying the study, researchers concluded that the glacier had “lost contact with a seabed ridge” and is now retreating at a speed of 1.3 miles per year — a rate double what they predicted between 2011 and 2019.

Underwater robots are studying the 'Doomsday Glacier' in Antarctica ... (USA TODAY)

Scientists have captured a first-of-its-kind seafloor mapping near the world's widest glacier, shrinking at a pace that could raise global sea levels.

It may be one or two generations, or “multiple decades,” before Thwaites loses a significant amount of ice, according to Graham. If the massive glacier’s ice melted, it would have a global impact, according to Graham. “It's not like filling up a bathtub, where everything rises evenly.” he said. “That's a situation that we know from basic glaciological theory leads to an unstable configuration,” Graham said. It sits on bedrock far below sea level, and the rock slope deepens farther into Antarctica’s interior, according to Graham. “Thwaites has the potential to rewrite our coastlines for everybody on the planet.” Robots captured high-resolution images of the seabed just under half a mile underwater in front of the glacier. and Swedish researchers deployed underwater robots close to the seafloor of the Thwaites Glacier to retrieve data, said Dr. “It's actually melting probably from beneath, mostly on the ocean side,” Graham said. “But it was going back at a rate that’s at least twice what it’s retreating at right now." The images showed traces of where Thwaites left imprints of where it once sat. Researchers in June said the glacier may be losing ice at

Research Reveals That the Thwaites "Doomsday" Glacier Is Holding ... (HYPEBEAST)

Research Reveals That the Thwaites "Doomsday" Glacier Is Holding on by "Its Fingernails": The glacier is roughly the size of Florida.

The Thwaites Glacier has been monitored as early as 1973 where in the ’80s it was discovered that, rather than being fixed to land, it was embedded into the seabed where warming currents were melting it from the bottom. Up to 100 billion tons of ice from the Thwaites Glacier is melting a year — twice as fast as 30 years ago. [Nature Geoscience](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-022-01019-9) has just published new findings regarding the Thwaites Glacier in the Antarctic.

'Doomsday' glacier could melt faster than previously thought (NBC News)

One of the most closely watched glaciers in the world could soon melt faster than expected, a shift that could lead to sudden rises in sea levels.

The findings were based on the Thwaites Glacier’s imprints on the seabed, allowing researchers to track the glacier's movements along the seabed from up to a century ago. But previous studies suggested the ice shelf might collapse into the ocean as soon as 2031. … You could say that’s good news, because it’s not so bad now compared to what it was in the past,” said a co-author of the study, Anna Wåhlin, a professor of physical oceanography at Sweden’s Gothenburg University.

The Thwaites 'doomsday' glacier is on the cusp of disaster (Popular Science)

The glacier is retreating at twice the rate that satellites observed, according to new research. This could be drastic for sea level rise.

Once the glacier retreats past a ridge on the seabed that is keeping it in place, the ice could melt even quicker as it interacts with even warmer ocean water further south. [Ohio State University glaciologist John Mercer](https://library.osu.edu/collections/SPEC.PA.56.0024/) called it a “uniquely vulnerable and unstable body of ice.” Mercer used geologic evidence that West Antarctica’s ice had drastically changed several millennia ago, at times when East Antarctica and Greenland ice sheets had not. Scientists mapped a critical area of the seafloor in front of the glacier in high-resolution. This is twice the rate that satellites have observed over the past eight years, according to the study. It has been on scientist’s radar for decades, as advances in technology made studying the remote region more feasible. A state-of-the-art orange robotic vehicle called Rán, made by Kongsberg Maritime, collected imagery and supporting geophysical data during an expedition to Thwaites in 2019 in a risky and serendipitus mission, Graham says. The team captured more than 160 parallel ridges in the sea floor that act as a glacier footprint. The Thwaites Glacier is in big trouble. [Thwaites Glacier](https://thwaitesglacier.org/). Thwaites is part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and one of the [defining characteristic of this area ](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/the-unstable-west-antarctic-ice-sheet-a-primer)is that the majority of the ice sheet is “grounded” on a bed that lies below the sea level instead of on dry land. Already losing 50 billon tons of ice each year, it accounts for four percent of the Earth’s annual global sea level rise. The study published yesterday in the journal [Nature Geoscience](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-022-01019-9) finds striking evidence that Thwaites is eroding along its underwater base.

Thwaites 'doomsday' glacier could begin rapid melt with 'just a small ... (ABC News)

Scientists have mapped underwater terrain near the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica for the first time, showing the massive glacier has the potential to ...

Researchers believe most of that ice would have melted over the preceding three years. Palmer in early 2019 to map a former grounding zone of the glacier — the area where an ice shelf attached to solid ground gradually transitions into a floating ice shelf. By analysing the amplitude and spacing of ridges left by the glacier on a raised part of the sea bed — an isolated underwater outcrop they called "the bump" at the south-west corner of the glacier's tongue — they were able to determine that the markings, or "ribs", had been left by the glacier lifting and settling with the ocean tide each day.