Grim outlook for Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier

[muriel_volestrangler]

Thwaites Glacier spans an area equal to the island of Great Britain or the US state of Florida, and in places is over 2000 m (over 6,500 feet) thick. The volume of ice flowing into the sea from Thwaites and its neighbouring glaciers has more than doubled from the 1990s to the 2010s, and the wider region, called the Amundsen Sea Embayment, accounts for 8% of the current rate of global sea level rise of 4.6 mm a year.
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“Thwaites has been retreating for more than 80 years, accelerating considerably over the past 30 years, and our findings indicate it is set to retreat further and faster,” according to Dr Rob Larter from the Science Coordination of the ITGC and a marine geophysicist at BAS.
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“There is a consensus that Thwaites Glacier retreat will accelerate sometime within the next century. However, there is also concern that additional processes revealed by recent studies, which are not yet well enough studied to be incorporated into large scale models, could cause retreat to accelerate sooner.”

The findings suggest Thwaites Glacier and much of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could be lost by the 23rd century. Thwaites Glacier is exceptionally vulnerable because its ice rests on a bed far below sea level that slopes downwards towards the heart of West Antarctica.

https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/grim-outlook-for-antarcticas-thwaites-glacier/

[kansasobama]

1. Thanks for posting

This is really bad