The international collaboration also highlights the shocking condition of the Thwaites Glacier, popularly known as the ‘Doomsday Glacier’, and the disastrous consequences that it poses on the rise in sea levels.
Exposing the Recondissement of the Glacier
Known as the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC) the group of scientists has been carrying out an applied research of the Thwaites Glacier admiring its internal drainage for the last 6 years. The glacier, they claim in a new report, has continued to deteriorate over the last five months.
Scientist have noted that the Thwaites Glacier loses ice faster than what had been observed in 3 decades with the last retreating phase occurring at an increased rate. In all shock, this quick loss of ice is expected to persist. However, the scientists suggest that within the next longtime, 200 years from now, both the Thwaites and the Antarctic Ice Sheet are likely to disintegrate and within that time period, coastal cities would have been comprised.
Disclosing the Denial of the Glacier’s Denial
The models suggest that the glacier has structural weaknesses due to its geographical setting. Thwaites Glacier is on land that has a backward gradient consequently this ice weakening means that as the Glacier retreats more and more ice melts into relatively hot water.
Through the use of sophisticated instruments like the Icefin underwater robot, the researchers have infiltrated the glacier’s grounding line – also known as the ice-shelf front- where the ice does, indeed, contact the seabed but is beginning to become buoyantly floating ice. This critical category has become witness to one of its powers of vulnerability since it was ascertained that in numerous cases very warm deep ocean water is somehow able to channel itself and get through any deep cracks or staircase cuts within the ice to melt it down rapidly.
Further experiments with satellite and GPS data provided an insight that the seawater was capable of getting under the glacier pushing warm water under the ice and this proved to be a further ice melting enhancer.
Conclusion
The results of the work performed by the ITGC team suggest that Thwaites Glacier is a clear and present danger that is characterized by an active and dangerous stance with regard to sea level rise that spells doom to the coastal cities and towns across the globe. There is still some understanding gained regarding behavior of the glacier but its retreat if any, poses a risk that other research is needed to determine whether it is now or tropical. And as the world continues to come to terms with climate change, the Doomsday Glacier is a vivid reminder of how necessary it is to fight against the catastrophe for the sake of future generations.
