Scientists think this cavity is a major cause of the ice loss seen at the glacier. âWhen we have better data, better science, then we can make more informed decisions.â. And how fast it might happen once it starts. Thwaites Glacier. Thwaites Glacier), sometimes referred to as the Doomsday Glacier, is an unusually broad and vast Antarctic glacier flowing into the Pine Island Bay, part of the Amundsen Sea, east of Mount Murphy, on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land Its surface speeds exceed 2 kilometres per year (1.2 miles per year) near its grounding line. Renewable Energy . … For some communities, 2 feet of sea level rise, which would come if Thwaites Glacier melts completely, represents an existential threat. Une vaste cavité sous le glacier Thwaites en Antarctique Ouest a été repérée par la NASA.Mesurant 10 km de long, 4 km de large et 300 m de hauteur, cette cavité s’est ouverte à la base du glacier entre 2011 et 2016, séparant la glace du socle rocheux ouvrant la voie aux eaux chaudes provenant de l’océan et en le faisant fondre par en-dessous. Thwaites Glacier alone holds enough ice above sea level to raise sea levels by more than 65cm if it was to melt. The front face of Thwaites glacier rises an estimated 60 to 75 feet above water in the areas where it is most intact. Once gone, surrounding glaciers will have no obstacle in their path, speeding up their melting and the potential release of enough water to raise sea levels by as much as 2.4m. In a paper that outlined this marine ice cliff instability theory in 2016, authors Rob DeConto from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and David Pollard from Penn State University raised alarm by predicting that Antarctica by itself could contribute up to 3 feet of sea level rise by 2100. Environment. Photo Gallery. Boston, of course, is not alone, nor is it the most vulnerable. Nifty 11,680.35-290.7. Paolo et al., Science 2015 . 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This winterâs expedition aboard the Palmer marked the first field season of a five-year, international research collaboration to discover just how much, and how fast, Thwaites Glacier might add to rising seas. West Antarctica. Once gone, surrounding glaciers will have no obstacle in their path, speeding up their melting and the potential release of enough water to raise sea levels by as much as 2.4m. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number NSF-PLR 1738913, and reviewed by NSF. The craggy face of Thwaites loomed a few hundred feet away, but seemed almost close enough to touch, or at least within shouting distance. Experts estimate that its complete collapse would aggravate the phenomenon adding 65 centimeters to the oceanic water. Scientists recently discovered that warm undercurrents could be eating away its underbelly. âYou could get a domino effect of icebergs falling off of the edge of an ice sheet,â said Ali Graham, a marine geophysicist on the ship from the UKâs University of Exeter. Days after the Nathaniel B. Palmer became the first ship to sail across the 75-mile face of West Antarcticaâs Thwaites Glacier, a piece of its floating ice shelf bigger than Manhattan crumbled off the glacier into a flotilla of icebergs. In Thwaites is the only known glacier in Antarctica to exhibit seismic behavior, whereas glaciers in Greenland have been recorded causing earthquakes for some time. 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And the entire Antarctic ice sheet is melting nearly six times faster than 40 years ago. The Thwaites Glacier is often considered one of the most important when it comes to changes in sea level, but it has been little studied. âIs it over a century, over a thousand years, or can you do in a decade? Recent update from the ITGC November 11, 2019 meetings . âThey filled in a lot of the [Boston] Harbor with horses and shovels,â Wormser said, âand they never contemplated sea level rise.â. Satellite images of the western portion of the Thwaites ice front on March 2, 2019, and on March 6, 2019, after a large section of what had previously been called âice shelfâ crumbled into a flotilla of icebergs. Before we get into it, let’s do a quick bit of background. Its melting already contributes 4% to global sea-level rise each year. Environment The ultimate goal of the five-year research collaboration is to collect data â on the glacier itself, the bedrock beneath it, and the warm water melting it â that will improve models and fill in some of the unknowns about what the glacierâs collapse might look like. Thwaites is a marine-terminating glacier. It was initially delineated from aerial photographs collected during Operation Highjump in January 1947. âOur challenge is that [sea levels are] going to keep going up,â said Julie Wormser from the Boston-area Mystic River Watershed Association. Thwaites Glacier is 120 km wide, fast-moving glacier located in Antarctica. Currently, Thwaites’ ice loss contributes approximately 4% to the annual rise in global sea-levels, with the potential to add 65cm in total should the whole glacier collapse. Read all the latest news and updates on Thwaites Glacier only on News18.com. Their 2016 research, which predicts how marine ice cliffs will react to atmospheric warming under a variety of future greenhouse gas scenarios, found that in a future where we quickly and radically cut greenhouse gas emissions, the West Antarctic ice sheet would be relatively stable for centuries. Journey to Antarctica: How Does One Navigate the Wildest Waves in the Southern Ocean? LIVE UPDATES. Each scenario includes only a small amount of melting from Antarctica. None of the protections necessary to preserve coastal communities will come cheap. An iceberg in the Southern Ocean, is pictured here as the Nathaniel B. Palmer sailed by during its return trip from Antarctica in March 2019. A new expedition hopes to change that. Environment ‘Doomsday glacier’ melting due to warm water channels, scientists say. Video of the Day: '90 Day Fiance': Fans slam Brittany on Instagram, ask her to remove her weave. Elle pourrait continuer à s'agrandir. Science 344(6185) NAS, 2015. And that's a concern.â. Thwaites glacier, on the west of Antarctica, is a remote place, around 1000 miles from US and UK research stations. Antarctica In a future where carbon emissions continue unabated, warming air temperatures would force its collapse within 250 years. Find all videogalleries including political news, current affairs and news headlines online on Thwaites Glacier … The city of Boston is planning for more than 3 feet of sea level rise by 2070, and between 2 and 7 feet by 2100. That is one of the most important questions in the world today. Scientists fear the collapse of Thwaites Glacier could one day destabilize surrounding glaciers and eventually trigger up to 11 feet of global sea level rise. We have a news update from the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC) MELT project. But the IPCC, too, serves up its estimates with an important caveat, stating that âthe collapse of the marine-based sectors of the Antarctic ice sheet, if initiated, could cause [global mean sea level] to rise substantially above the likely range during the 21st century.â. Comment se défait un glacier. DeConto said they are still working to identify the exact tipping point that would trigger this dramatic fracturing of the West Antarctic ice sheet, but work he presented at the American Geophysical Union meeting this past winter suggests itâs somewhere between 2-3 degrees Celsius of warming. And ice cliff modeling suggests that if that process starts, there might not be anything to stop it. The Thwaites Glacier is receding by half a mile per year. Antarctica's colossal Thwaites Glacier is melting fast - and scientists may have discovered why. If Thwaites retreats far enough inland and reaches a certain thickness, physics dictates it will start collapsing under its own weight. Thwaites: 'Doomsday Glacier' vulnerability seen in new maps Scientists may just have identified Thwaites Glacier's Achilles heel. Le glacier Thwaites est une gigantesque masse de glace formée par la compression de milliards de tonnes neige. The paper notes that Thwaites glacier covers 74,000 sq miles (192,000 sq km), … The Thwaites Glacier is extremely difficult for scientists to reach, but soon they will be able to get a much better picture of what's happening. A recent study put the price tag of protecting the US from rising seas over the next two decades at more than $400 billion. Don’t miss on the latest updates. âWe could be observing it right now and not really realize that itâs happening, and thatâs pretty scary to think about.â. Like other glaciers, Thwaites has a long, thin tongue of ice that sticks out into seawater. Because of its size (1.9 lakh square km), it contains enough water to raise the world sea level by more than half a metre. A joint UK-US research programme launched today (Monday 30 April) is one of the most detailed and extensive examinations of a massive Antarctic glacier ever undertaken. Its melting accounts for 4 percent of global sea-level rise. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet sits atop bowl-shaped bedrock and the West Antarctic shelf, which includes Thwaites, stabilizes the larger ice shelf. Science One World Bank estimate suggests more than 90 million people in just 12 developing countries would be displaced. In the near term, these changes will mean more frequent, coastal flooding in low-lying areas, including some of Bostonâs most historic neighborhoods. NSE Gainer-Large Cap . “Thwaites is a very broad glacier that reaches deep into the West Antarctic Ice Sheet,” said Ted Scambos, research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and NSIDC. Thwaites glacier, on the west of Antarctica, is a remote place, around 1000 miles from US and UK research stations. âThere's still a debate over what [this collapse] would look like,â Graham said. New, not-yet-published research from the same pair revises the estimate for the end of the century downward substantially, but the longer-term picture is still bleak, with a rate of sea level rise that could âbe very challenging for coastal planners and engineers to cope with,â DeConto wrote in an email, âlikely leading to large-scale retreat from the coast in some places and loss of some low lying islands.â. Thwaites glacier in Antarctica might be past the point of no return. 2. Le glacier de Thwaites commence à s’amincir ; de la glace s’écoule dans la mer à mesure que son front recule vers la terre (dessins du bas). Officially called the Thwaites Glacier, this mass of ice nestled into the western edge of Antarctica is melting at an alarming rate. Thwaites Glacier. By CNN. The questions swirling around the future of the West Antarctic ice sheet add to the considerable uncertainty policymakers and planners face when trying to prepare for sea level rise. Join us for this exciting opportunity to learn about Thwaites Glacier research, life aboard the Nathaniel B Palmer, and polar climate research supported by the US Antarctic Program. These updates are associated with reports from the research, found at our Snow on Ice page. âWeâd like to plan for 2100. © 2020 CIRES is a partnership of NOAA and the University of Colorado Boulder. The ice shelf is stabilized by contact with the seafloor. Top video: Drone footage captures the Nathaniel B. Palmer research vessel surrounded by icebergs and floating sea ice in Antarctica. Thwaitesâ ice shelf stabilizes the whole glacier, acting like a cork in a wine bottle to slow the seaward flow of ice from the continentâs interior. Once the glacier has retreated to a certain point, the tall cliffs of ice may crumble under their own weight. Here, warm water is pushed up onto the continental shelf, where it flows along the bottom until it reaches the floating ice shelf in front of Thwaites Glacier. The massive blowout of icebergs wonât itself change sea levels, as the ice that fractured off deep into the ice shelf had already been floating. Thwaites … Scientists aboard noticed something had changed when the research vessel tried to navigate to a spot in front of the Florida-sized glacier and was blocked by ice-choked seas. A roughly 20-mile stretch of Thwaites had fractured into mile-long icebergs that were now being blown out into the bay in front of Thwaites. Thwaites Glacier is an important area of study for scientists as it is particularly susceptible to climate and ocean changes. thwaites glacier News and Updates from The Economictimes.com. However, statements or recommendations expressed here are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The ship is the length of a football field and dwarfs a nearby cruise ship. Joughin et al., 2014. Into the Thaw: Decoding Thwaites Glacier This big blowout confirmed that there's very little actual ice shelf left in the western part of Thwaites Glacier. NSF-NERC Thwaites Glacier Update. Read More If you were to dive into the water beneath the protruding, visible ice and swim downward, you’d eventually see that Thwaites makes contact with rock. Get all the latest news and updates on Thwaites Glacier News only on News18.com. Thwaites Glacier, sometimes referred to as the Doomsday Glacier, is an unusually broad and vast Antarctic glacier flowing into the Pine Island Bay, part of the Amundsen Sea, east of Mount Murphy, on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land.Its surface speeds exceed 2 kilometres per year near its grounding line. Find all videogalleries including political news, current affairs and news headlines online on Thwaites Glacier … But it is a sign of the glacierâs instability. Once this event happens, the remains of West Antarctic ice will be compromised. âIt was quite remarkable,â Larter said of the satellite images. At 11 feet, much of the city would be underwater without massive, new infrastructure projects to protect it. Multiple studies show that, overall, Antarctica is losing ice. Thwaites Glacier covers 192,000 square kilometres (74,000 square miles) - the size of Great Britain or the US state of Florida—and is particularly susceptible to climate and ocean changes. The Thwaites Glacier has already shed a lot of ice into the ocean; it accounts for about four percent of global sea level rise. • Log In, From the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Register here for the Antarctica Week Festival, Deep channels link ocean to Antarctic glacier, Plans for International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration in response to COVID-19, New Sights in the Second Field Season of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, THOR research onboard the N.B. Get all the latest Videos and updates on Thwaites Glacier News only on News18.com. The vast and very remote Thwaites Glacier in … media caption Timelapse satellite images of Thwaites Glacier melting This difference can be explained by the fact that the majority of Greenland’s icebergs capsize when they break off into the water. During the next summer thaw, scientists will watch to see if more of the ice shelf inland from the mélange starts to crumble. (British Antarctic Survey) (Supplied) Is Thwaites Glacier doomed? Environment. Some communities are going beyond these national and international projections and incorporating potential melting from Antarcticaâs ice sheets into their local sea level rise estimates. Thwaites Glacier is one of the largest glaciers in West Antarctica covering a region of the size of Great Britain (see Fig. âYou'd expect it might lead to even further acceleration of flow of the glacier,â Larter said of the blowout. Thwaites Glacier and the surrounding coastal region alone could raise sea levels by half a meter (1.6 feet) within 100 years. We will keep you updated with the news you shouldn’t miss. âWhat we didnât realize at the time is the ice [front] was coming out to chase us out,â said Rob Larter, a marine geophysicist at the British Antarctic Survey and chief scientist on the ship. Vietnam, for example, where more than a quarter of the population would face inundation if the entire West Antarctic ice sheet were to collapse, uses IPCC data in its national climate report. If every country met its Paris Agreement commitments, the world would warm to 2.7 degrees Celsius. âSuddenly, it was making sense with what we were seeing out of the windows.â. Can shearing of Thwaites glacier slow or stop if humans control greenhouse gas emissions? Instead, much of the ice there is actually what scientists call a âmélange,â a slushy mix of icebergs and other floating bits of ice formed by fracturing at an ice front. But even the city government isnât sure that level of protection is possible. Bostonâs affluent Back Bay neighborhood was previously a tidal bay in the city until a 19th-century land reclamation project made construction of the neighborhood possible. As the ice shelf thins, it lifts away from the seafloor and loses its ability to act as a brake on the flow of ice from the continent. Read all of the reporting from the eight-week expedition. This submarineâs historic tour under Thwaites Glacier will help scientists predict sea level rise, On a journey to Antarctica, a New Orleans chef awakens to the threat of melting ice, These high-tech seals are charting future sea level rise, These scientists used small explosions to 'see' under Antarctica and measure how fast a key glacier will melt, For this marine tech, Antarcticaâs Thwaites Glacier drives home threat of climate change, more than a quarter of the population would face inundation. The important takeaway here is that Thwaites will melt to a point that the glacier will collapse. These updates are associated with reports from the research, found at our Snow on Ice page. It already drains an area roughly the size of Britain or the US state of Florida, accounting for around four per cent of global sea … 1).. Over the past 30 years, this glacier has undergone dramatic changes. Tagged: The Thwaites glacier has experienced significant flow acceleration since the 1970s. This interface is called the grounding line. This means that cities and countries using IPCC data to build their own localized sea level rise projections are likewise only planning for a small amount of loss from West Antarctica, which might prove to be an underestimation. Thwaites Glacier. Satellite images soon showed where these icebergs were coming from. The city is working with communities to develop neighborhood plans focusing on solutions like raised parks along Boston Harbor that serve both as spaces for recreation and flood barriers. Roughly 90% of an ice sheet typically sits below the water line. Now, about a third of Boston is at risk of coastal flooding if sea levels rise between 2 and 8 feet higher than they are today, Wormser said. West Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier covers 70,270 square miles (182,000 square km), the approximate size of Florida. âI don't have an answer for that,â Pegan said when asked if it was even feasible to protect Boston from 11 feet of sea level rise. Its ice flow has accelerated by about 50-100 m per year since 2009. From 1992 to 2011, the centre of the Thwaites grounding line retreated by nearly 14 kilometres (nine miles). If Thwaites collapses, much of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could follow it into the ocean. Our "Antarctic Field Update" education series helps keep you and your students informed about current research in the Amundsen Sea, Antarctica, from our scientists onboard the Research Vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer as they study ocean characteristics near the Thwaites Glacier. The collapse of the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica could significantly affect global sea levels. Scientists race against time to find out. Dr. Julia Wellner is an Associate Professor at the University of Houston. In the US, just half that amount of sea level rise could prompt a coastal exodus that would rival the great migration. Follow all the breaking news in our 9News liveblog; News. It is estimated that it would collapse into the sea in 200-900 years. The seafloor underneath the glacier slopes downward as it goes inland in what scientists call a âretrograde slope,â and the ice sitting on top of it gets thicker and thicker. Scientists studying Thwaites Glacier hope to give policymakers a better sense of just how fast sea levels might rise in coming decades, and whether itâs still possible to halt the kind of massive sea level rise it could cause, or just slow its onset. Many low-lying coastal cities, from the US to the Netherlands to Bangladesh, are built on land partially reclaimed from the sea. Without buttressing glaciers, the WAIS could send an additional 3 meters (10 feet) of melt water into the oceans over the next two centuries, doubling the current estimates. Because of its size (1.9 lakh square km), it contains enough water to raise the world sea level by more than half a metre. Il est suivi avec attention depuis plus de 25 ans, car tous les glaciers qui se déversent en mer d'Amundsen dans la même zone de l'Antarctique occidental semblent subir une accélération3, et perdre de la masse4, tout particulièrement celui-ci, puisqu'à lui seul il représentait vers 2012 environ le tiers de la perte de masse … Scientists predict its ice sheet may break off, increasing sea levels. Thwaites Glacier, sometimes referred to as the Doomsday Glacier, is an unusually broad and vast Antarctic glacier flowing into the Pine Island Bay, part of the Amundsen Sea, east of Mount Murphy, on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land.Its surface speeds exceed 2 kilometres per year near its grounding line. 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Find all videogalleries including political news, current affairs and news headlines online on Thwaites Glacier … More about our speakers .