Carbon dioxide also is released when organic matter burns (including fossil fuels like oil or gas). (in climate studies) The term carbon sometimes will be used almost interchangeably with carbon dioxide to connote the potential impacts that some action, product, policy or process may have on long-term atmospheric warming.Ĭarbon dioxide: (or CO 2) A colorless, odorless gas produced by all animals when the oxygen they inhale reacts with the carbon-rich foods that they’ve eaten. Data from these instruments alerted the researchers to the ice shelf’s near-collapse.Īntarctica: A continent mostly covered in ice, which sits in the southernmost part of the world.īehavior: The way something, often a person or other organism, acts towards others, or conducts itself.Ĭarbon: A chemical element that is the physical basis of all life on Earth. They also placed sensors in the ocean near it. This team planted instruments atop, within and below the glacier. And that’s why in 2018, researchers from the United States and the United Kingdom started studying the glacier in-depth. This makes Thwaites “the most important place to study for near-term sea level rise,” Scambos said. That could drag more ice into the ocean, raising sea levels even higher. Its fall would destabilize other West Antarctic glaciers. But Thwaites’ collapse isn’t the only worry. Thwaites’ is nicknamed the “Doomsday Glacier.” That’s because of its potential to raise sea levels. “The collapse of this ice shelf will result in a direct increase in sea level rise, pretty rapidly,” Pettit added. Pettit, who was part of the research team, studies glaciers at Oregon State University in Corvallis. The whole thing could give way in as little as three to five years, Erin Pettit said at the meeting. This double-whammy of melting and shattering is pushing the ice shelf toward collapse. As a result, the ice shelf is shattering and weakening. These cracks are swiftly snaking through the ice like cracks in a car’s windshield. Meanwhile, warm water is widening fractures in the ice. Eventually, it will retreat completely behind the underwater mountain that’s pinning it in place. Those data come from sensors placed beneath and around the ice shelf for the last two years. Scambos and his colleagues found that warm ocean waters are eating away at the ice from below. Such measurements could help researchers better understand the glacier’s rapid melting. Scientists could then take the first ever measurements of ocean conditions in the region. Heated water (heaters shown here) carved a hole through the ice down to the grounding zone. This is the region where the land-based glacier juts out into the sea to become a floating ice shelf. Scientists drilled a hole through the ice at Thwaites Glacier’s grounding zone. That sticking point has helped hold the whole mass of ice in place.īut new data suggest that brace won’t hold much longer. The underbelly of that ice shelf is lodged against an underwater mountain some 50 kilometers (31 miles) offshore. It’s an extension of the glacier - one that juts out into the sea. The eastern third of Thwaites is currently propped up by a floating ice shelf. That poses the world’s biggest threat to sea levels in the next 80 years. If the whole glacier fell into the ocean, sea levels would rise by 65 centimeters (26 inches). The organization is based in Boulder, Colo. At roughly the size of Florida, he notes, “it’s huge!” Scambos studies glaciers at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. Thwaites spans 120 kilometers (75 miles) across. An international research team shared its finding December 13 at the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting. But new research suggests this ice shelf could collapse within three to five years. Until now, an ice shelf - a floating slab of ice - has held this West Antarctic glacier from the ocean. Thwaites Glacier is one of the biggest in Antarctica. If it does, that would trigger a disastrous rise in sea levels across the globe. A huge glacier in Antarctica is at risk of sliding into the ocean.
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