Nature & Environment

'Doomsday glacier' collapse will cause major sea level rise, study warns

By T.K. Randall
September 22, 2024

Image: Antarctica - Petermann Island
Credit: W. Bulach / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) Known forebodingly as the 'doomsday glacier', Thwaites is situated in an extremely remote and inaccessible part of Antarctica, making it a particularly challenging place to work.

Nonetheless, for six years, a joint US-UK research program known as the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC) - which involved over 100 field scientists - painstakingly studied the ice using planes, ships and underwater drones to learn more about it.

Disturbingly, they discovered that the Thwaites glacier is particularly vulnerable to climate change because it rests on rock that is significantly below sea level and it is being slowly melted away from underneath by warm seawater.

Eventually, this melting will cause sea levels to rise by over half a meter which could, in turn, trigger an even more catastrophic loss of ice in the region and a further sea level rise of over three meters.On the plus side, while the outlook is not good, we still have time to address the situation.

"It's not going to instantaneously lead to a catastrophic retreat in the next year or the year after, but, at the same time, we are very sure that Thwaites is going to continue to retreat, and ultimately the retreat is going to accelerate," said Rob Larter of the British Antarctic Survey.

"We can't put an exact time frame on that."

Overall, the researchers believe that the glacier - along with most of the West Antarctic ice sheet - will be completely gone by the end of the 23rd Century.

Source: New Scientist

Tags: Thwaites, Antarctica, Glacier