“We can’t give you a positive conclusion, or we can’t say right now what this means in terms of what’s going to happen in a particular number of years, but these results are not good news,” Larter said. But Larter was there with a specific question in mind: What does the ocean beneath Thwaites look like? The team of scientists began to answer this question in a study it published Friday in Science Advances, where the researchers outline previously unknown conditions that exist beneath the so-called “doomsday” glacier, including a notable warmer water stream flowing west from Pine Island Bay beneath Thwaites. The team of researchers engaged in a variety of scientific endeavors, including tagging elephant and Weddell seals to help log oceanic measurements. “Everybody had been talking about, We need to find things out about Thwaites Glacier, for years… We got there in the half light, in the early hours of the morning, so it was kind of an eerie sight, seeing these towering ice cliffs.” “The Thwaites Glacier has almost got a mythical aura about it,” said Larter, an author on the study. At the time, no team had yet visited the western area on the Amundsen Sea right up by the glacier. By the time the team’s ship approached Thwaites in February 2019, the sea ice conditions were favorable enough for the researchers to get up close and personal. As a marine geophysicist and the deputy science leader of paleo environments with the British Antarctic Survey, Larter was beyond ecstatic to study Thwaites, a glacier few have had the distinguished pleasure of witnessing in person. When Robert Larter headed to Antarctica in 2019, it was his sixth time visiting the region. For reference, that’s enough to put parts of Miami Beach underwater. It’s the widest glacier in the world with the ability to contribute more than two feet to global sea levels if it fully collapses. It’s hard to fathom the amount of water that’s locked within Thwaites. I’m Yessenia Funes, climate editor of Atmos.
Welcome to The Frontline, where we’re zooming into the Antarctic. I’m sorry to say, folks: The findings aren’t exactly encouraging. The paper is a result of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, a global partnership between scientists in the U.K. The findings will directly influence climate models that help measure future global sea level rise projections. The rapid loss of ice from glaciers and ice sheets in our polar regions directly contributes to sea level rise, which affects so much of our planet and lives.Ī new study published in Science Advances Friday shares debut direct observational data from beneath Thwaites, the so-called “doomsday” glacier in western Antarctica. And that should be a major concern for everyone-especially if you live on or near a coastline. By that, I mean the ice is melting too damn fast. The situation in the cryosphere is turning out to be a lot worse than scientists initially predicted.
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