October 14, 2024

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Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’ is on the verge of collapse: Study warns massive ice sheet the size of Great Britain could cause global sea levels to rise by 2 feet

Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’ is on the verge of collapse: Study warns massive ice sheet the size of Great Britain could cause global sea levels to rise by 2 feet

With the potential to cause sea levels to rise across the planet, it’s no wonder Thwaites Glacier has earned the nickname “Doomsday Glacier.”

Now scientists have revealed alarming findings about how and when the glacier collapsed.

Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) used underwater robots to take new measurements of the glacier, which is about the size of Great Britain.

Data suggests that Thwaites Glacier and much of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could disappear completely by the 23rd century.

Worryingly, experts say that if it collapses completely, global sea levels will rise by two feet (65 cm), which will lead to huge areas being submerged under water.

With the potential to cause sea levels to rise across the planet, it’s no wonder Thwaites Glacier has earned the nickname “Doomsday Glacier.”

Thwaites Glacier is about 74.5 miles (120 kilometers) wide—the same size as Great Britain or Florida—making it the widest glacier on the planet.

Thwaites Glacier is about 74.5 miles (120 kilometers) wide—the same size as Great Britain or Florida—making it the widest glacier on the planet.

Thwaites Glacier is about 74.5 miles (120 kilometers) wide – about the size of Great Britain or Florida.

This makes it the widest glacier on the planet.

In some places, it is more than 6,500 feet (2,000 meters) thick — about 2.5 times the size of the Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building.

Previous studies have shown that the volume of ice flowing into the sea from Thwaites and its neighbouring glaciers more than doubled from the 1990s to the first decade of the 21st century.

Moreover, the wider region, called the Amundsen Sea Gulf, is responsible for a staggering eight percent of the current rate of global sea level rise of 4.6 mm per year.

Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) used underwater robots to take new measurements of the glacier, which is the size of Great Britain.

Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) used underwater robots to take new measurements of the glacier, which is the size of Great Britain.

Doomsday Glacier

Thwaites Glacier currently covers an area of ​​74,131 square miles (192,000 square kilometres) – roughly the size of Great Britain.

It is up to 4,000 metres (13,100 ft) thick and is essential in making projections of global sea level rise.

The ice is retreating in the face of warming ocean temperatures, and is thought to be unstable because its interior is more than 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) below sea level, while the ice bed on the coast is very shallow.

The collapse of Thwaites Glacier is expected to raise global sea levels by one to two metres (three to six feet), with the potential to raise more than twice that of the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

In their new study, the team set out to develop a more reliable prediction of how and when the Thwaites River will change in the future.

“There is consensus that Thwaites Glacier retreat will accelerate sometime over the next century,” said Dr Rob Larter, a marine geophysicist at BAS.

“However, there are also concerns that additional processes revealed by recent studies, which have not been studied well enough to be included in large-scale models, may cause the decline to accelerate even more rapidly.”

The new study suggests that the Thwaites River will collapse by the 23rd century at the latest.

“It is alarming that the latest computer models project continued ice loss that will accelerate during the 22nd century and could lead to a large-scale collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the 23rd century,” said Dr. Ted Scambos, US science coordinator for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a glaciologist at the University of Colorado.

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The Thwaites River is “extremely vulnerable” because of its location, researchers say.

Its ice lies on a very low layer below sea level, which slopes down towards the heart of West Antarctica.

“The Thwaites River has been in retreat for more than 80 years, accelerating dramatically over the past 30 years, and our results suggest it is set to retreat even more rapidly,” Dr Larter added.

Alarmingly, if the entire West Antarctic ice sheet collapsed, it would cause global sea levels to rise by 10.8 feet (3.3 meters).

Alarmingly, if the entire West Antarctic ice sheet collapsed, it would cause global sea levels to rise by 10.8 feet (3.3 meters).

Alarmingly, the complete collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would cause global sea levels to rise by about 10.8 feet (3.3 meters).

This will have a huge impact on hundreds of millions of people on coasts from Bangladesh to low-lying islands in the Pacific, and from New York to London.

Based on the findings, the researchers are calling for urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – one of the main factors driving the Thwaites River’s melting.

Dr. Scambos added: “Immediate and sustained climate intervention would have a positive impact, but its impact would be delayed, particularly in modifying the delivery of warm deep ocean waters that are the main driver of the retreat.”

Melting glaciers and ice sheets would have a ‘major impact’ on global sea levels

Global sea levels could rise by up to 10 feet (3 meters) if the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica collapses.

Rising sea levels threaten cities from Shanghai to London, to low-lying areas in Florida or Bangladesh, and to entire countries like the Maldives.

For example, in the UK, a rise in water levels of 6.7 feet (2 metres) or more could put areas such as Hull, Peterborough, Portsmouth, parts of east London and the Thames Estuary at risk of flooding.

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The ice collapse, which could begin within decades, is expected to submerge major cities such as New York and Sydney.

Parts of New Orleans, Houston and Miami in the southern United States are also expected to be severely affected.

In 2014, the Association of Concerned Scientists conducted a study of 52 sea level indicators in communities across the United States.

A new study finds that tidal flooding will increase significantly in many locations on the East Coast and Gulf Coast, based on a conservative estimate of projected sea level rise based on current data.

The results showed that most of these communities will experience a sharp increase in the number and severity of tidal flooding events over the coming decades.

By 2030, more than half of the 52 communities studied are projected to experience, on average, at least 24 tidal flood events per year in exposed areas, assuming moderate sea level rise projections. Twenty of these communities could see tidal flood events triple or more.

The mid-Atlantic Coast region is expected to see some of the largest increases in flooding. Places like Annapolis, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., are expected to see more than 150 tidal floods per year, and several locations in New Jersey could see 80 or more.

In the UK, a two-metre (6.5-foot) rise in sea levels by 2040 would almost completely submerge large parts of Kent, according to the findings of a research paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in November 2016.

Areas on the south coast such as Portsmouth, as well as Cambridge and Peterborough, will also be severely affected.

Towns and cities around the Humber estuary, such as Hull, Scunthorpe and Grimsby, are also expected to experience severe flooding.