The Acceleration of an Antarctic Glacier Shows How Global Warming Can Rapidly Break Up Polar Ice and Raise Sea Level insideclimatenews.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from insideclimatenews.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Updated Apr 12, 2021 | 13:24 IST
With the help of an uncrewed submersible vehicle known as Ran, researchers were able to measure the strength, salinity, temperature, and oxygen content of ocean currents underneath the Thwaites glacier. The Thwaites glacier in Antarctica. | Photo Credit: Twitter
Key Highlights
While the ice sheet, reportedly, contributes around ten per cent of the overall rate of sea-level rise, it also has the greatest potential to increase the rate of sea-level rise due to the constant and rapid changes taking place under Thwaites
The data collected from RAN mapping ocean currents underneath the glacier enabled researchers to determine a deep connection to the east where water flows from Pine Island Bay
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London, April 12
The supply of warm water to Antarctica s Thwaites Glacier, also known as the doomsday glacier , is larger than previously thought, triggering concerns of faster melting and accelerating ice flow a risk for global sea levels, say researchers.
Thwaites is particularly sensitive to warm and salty ocean currents, due to its location and shape. For the first time, researchers were able to take measurements beneath it, with the help of an uncrewed submarine called Ran that made its way under the glacier front.
Among other things, it measured the strength, temperature, salinity and oxygen content of the ocean currents under the glacier and found variations. This indicates that the area under the glacier is a previously unknown active area where different water masses meet and mix with each other.
Antarctica s doomsday glacier will melt faster than thought Tuesday, April 13, 2021 IWK Bureau
The supply of warm water to Antarctica s Thwaites Glacier, also known as the doomsday glacier , is larger than previously thought, triggering concerns of faster melting and accelerating ice flow a risk for global sea levels, say researchers.
Thwaites is particularly sensitive to warm and salty ocean currents, due to its location and shape. For the first time researchers were able to take measurements beneath it, with the help of an uncrewed submarine called Ran that made its way under the glacier front.
Among other things, it measured the strength, temperature, salinity and oxygen content of the ocean currents under the glacier and found variations. This indicates that the area under the glacier is a previously unknown active area where different water masses meet and mix with each other.
Warm Water Under The Doomsday Glacier Threatens to Melt It Faster Than We Predicted
11 APRIL 2021
A confluence of warm water is threatening to topple the very pillars that keep the Doomsday Glacier afloat.
The first measurements ever performed below the icy tongue of Antarctica s Thwaites Glacier have now revealed a previously underestimated flow of warm water from the east.
This inflow of heat is mixing with other waters below the glacier and encroaching on several critical pinning points , researchers say, whittling them down from all sides.
If the activity continues or, worse, speeds up, the team is worried it could ultimately detach mass amounts of land-borne ice flowing into Pine Island Bay from the seabed below.