9/6/2022
One of Antarctica’s most important glaciers is holding on “by its fingernails” as warming temperatures around the globe threaten to cause further deterioration, which could then destabilize the glaciers in the entire region.
The Thwaites glacier, located in the Amundsen Sea in western Antarctica, is among the fastest-changing glaciers in the region, according to scientists.
Along with Pine Island, also located in the Amundsen Sea, the two structures are responsible for the largest contribution of sea level rise out of Antarctica.
Now, scientists are finding that the Thwaites glacier, also known as the “Doomsday glacier,” is melting faster than previously thought as warm and dense deep water delivers heat to the present-day ice-shelf cavity and melts its ice shelves from below, according to a study published in Nature Geoscience on Monday.
Thwaites, which is about the size of Florida, has been known to be on a fast retreat. But researchers from the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science and the British Antarctic Survey mapped a critical area of the seafloor in front of the glacier that could contribute to faster melting in the future.
Satellite imagery released in 2020 of Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers, which are located next to each other, showed highly crevassed areas and open fractures — both signs that the shear zones on both glaciers, where the ice shelf is thin, had weakened structurally over the past decade.
The researchers documented more than 160 parallel ridges that have been created as a result of the glacier’s leading edge retreating and bobbing up and down with the daily tides.
In addition, the scientists analyzed the rib-like formations submerged about a half of mile beneath the ocean, determining that each new rib was likely formed over a single day.
Large calving events, when a large piece breaks off, occurred on Thwaites in October 2018 and February 2020, when an unprecedented retreat of the ice shelf occurred.
The feedback process, likely triggered by new damage to the ice shelf, resulted in ice shelves being preconditioned for further disintegration and large calving events.
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