![]() "We should expect to see big changes over small timescales in the future - even from one year to the next - once the glacier retreats beyond a shallow ridge in its bed." "Thwaites is really holding on today by its fingernails," study co-author and British Antarctic Survey marine geophysicist Robert Larter said in a news release. Images created by researchers show how the melting of the Thwaites glacier creates ribbed parallel lines along the sea floor that serve as indicators for the rate of its erasure. "Similar rapid retreat pulses are likely to occur in the near future," the study says. This "critical area" in front of the glacier provided historical data about the glacier's past rates of retreat, and according to the University of South Florida, whose marine geophysicist Alastair Graham led the study, it "provides a kind of crystal ball" into Thwaites' future.Īnd while that may seem like a positive signal, it's actually a sign that things could soon accelerate. To better predict what's to come for the glacier, and how soon its demise could occur, researchers took a closer look at the grounding zone, where the glacier's ice transitions from its crutch on the sea floor to being a floating shelf. Palmer.įrank Nitsche/University of South Florida The rapidly changing state of the glacier has alarmed scientists for years because of the "spine-chilling" global implications of having so much additional water added to the Earth's oceans, sparking its nickname of the "doomsday glacier." Thwaites Offshore Research (THOR) scientists Alastair Graham (right) and Robert Larter (left) look on in awe at the crumbling ice face of the Thwaites Glacier margin, from the bridge deck of the R/V Nathaniel B. But as the planet continues to warm, its ice, like much of the sea ice around Earth's poles, is melting. The Thwaites Glacier is the widest on Earth at about 80 miles in width. It's already melting at a fast rate - and scientists say its collapse may only rapidly increase in the coming years. But if the shelf continues to fall apart, then the glaciers that flow off the land might have an impact on sea levels, he told the BCC.Įstimates show that if all of the ice held back by the Larsen C Ice Shelf were to enter the sea, global oceans could rise by 4 inches (10 centimeters), the BBC reported.The loss of a glacier the size of Florida in Antarctica could wreak havoc on the world as scientists expect it would raise global sea levels up to 10 feet. Once it breaks off, the iceberg isn't expected to raise sea levels, Luckman said. ![]() "If it doesn't go in the next few months, I'll be amazed," MIDAS project leader Adrian Luckman, a professor in the geography department at Swansea University in the United Kingdom, told BBC News. ![]() (When a chunk of ice breaks away from a glacier or an ice shelf it is called an iceberg.) If the Larsen C Ice Shelf does break off from Western Antarctica, it will be among the top 10 largest icebergs on record, the BBC reported. The Larsen A Ice Shelf disintegrated in 1995. It's possible that Larsen C will follow in the same footsteps as Larsen B, which disintegrated in 2002 after a similar rifting event, according the Project MIDAS blog. If the iceberg breaks off, the slow-flowing glaciers will have one less barrier between them and the sea. The Larsen C Ice Shelf is the South Pole's fourth-largest ice shelf, and holds back the frozen land-based glaciers behind it, Live Science previously reported. 10, 2016, as part of NASA's IceBridge mission. A huge crack can be seen in the Antarctic Peninsula's Larsen C ice shelf in this aerial image snapped on Nov.
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