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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.
Highlights
Thwaites Glacier is 120 km wide and its melting constitutes approximately 4% of the total global sea-level rise every year.
Researchers at the Sweden’s University of Gothenburg are now saying that fears related to Thwaites’s melting are worse than previously thought.
Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier – also called the “Doomsday Glacier” is a matter of grave concern due to its enormous potential to raise the sea level which will be caused by its melting due to the warm water underneath which was overlooked in past.
Thwaites Glacier is 120 km wide at its broadest and melting fast over the years. Because of its size (1.9 lakh square km), it contains enough water to raise the world sea level by more than half a meter. Studies have found the amount of ice flowing out of it has nearly doubled over the past 30 years.
Researchers obtain data from beneath Thwaites Glacier - Oceanographic oceanographicmagazine.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from oceanographicmagazine.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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.