[ExI] Antarctica's 'Doomsday Glacier' close to tipping point, unmanned sub reveals

John Grigg possiblepaths2050 at gmail.com
Fri Apr 16 11:37:30 UTC 2021


"Our observations show warm water impinging from all sides on pinning
points critical to ice-shelf stability, a scenario that may lead to
unpinning and retreat," the study authors wrote in the paper, which was
published April 9 in the journal *Scientific Advances*
<https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/15/eabd7254>. In other words,
the entire ice-shelf could get detached and then flow into the ocean.

As one of Antarctica's fastest melting glaciers, Thwaites Glacier,
cheerfully nicknamed the "Doomsday Glacier," has lost an estimated 595
billion tons (540 billion metric tons) of ice since the 1980s, contributing
to a 4% rise in global sea levels since that time. The glacier acts like a
cork in a wine bottle, stopping the rest of the ice in the region from
flowing into the sea, so Thwaites Glacier's collapse could potentially take
the rest of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet with it, causing a 10-foot (3
meter) rise in global sea levels".
https://www.livescience.com/doomsday-glacier-close-to-tipping-point.html
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