Antarctica’s Doomsday Glacier Could Raise Sea Level by Several Feet

Antarctica’s “doomsday glacier” has a high risk of collapse and is a danger to the global sea level. With the ever-growing potential to fully dissolve in the ocean flooding parts of the world, scientists have concerns about this “extreme sea level rise” putting global coastal regions at risk. The Thwaites Glacier is located in West Antarctica and is bigger than the state of Florida. It is just a fraction of the West Antarctic ice sheet, which in its entirety can raise sea levels by 16 feet, according to NASA.

What makes the Thwaites unique is that the glacier is grounded to the seabed, as opposed to other glaciers being grounded to dry land, and with warm ocean currents the Thwaites can be melted from underneath causing destabilization. The rapid melting in the Arctic plays a pivotal role in climate change with possible coastal destruction as a result as it worsens. The Thwaites Glacier is capable of raising sea level by several feet. As the planet warms the glacier erodes along its underwater base.  Nature Geoscience conducted a study where scientists mapped the glacier’s historical retreat.

The study is used to track the glacier’s past in hopes to predict its future. In their findings, they noticed that somewhere in the past two centuries, the base of the Thwaites dislodged from the seabed and retreated at a rate of 1.3 miles per year. That number is twice the number scientists recorded in the past decade.

The study’s lead author and marine geophysics at the University of South Florida, Alastair Graham said that this occurred ” as recently as the mid-20th century.” suggesting that the colossal glacier has the potential to rapidly retreat, receding past the seabed ridge that restrains the glacier.

Antarctica can see big changes expected little by little on a yearly basis once the glacier retreats “beyond a shallow ridge in its bed,” says Robert Larter, a marine geophysicist and one of the study’s co-authors from the British Antarctic Survey.

Written by Mikal Eggleston
Edited by Sheena Robertson

Sources:

The Economic Times: Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier on verge of breaking way, poses threat to billion lives; by ET Press

CNN: ‘Doomsday glacier,’ which could raise sea level by several feet, is holding on ‘by its fingernails,’ scientists say; by Angela Fritz

CNN: Our underwater future: What sea level rise will look like around the globe; by John Keefe and Rachel Ramirez