But all signs point to the glacier not surviving long. Scambos said the glacier could survive on its own, but it will be important to "get a clearer picture of how the glacier will behave" within the next 100 years. And it could lead to even more sea-level rise, up to 10 feet, if it draws the surrounding glaciers with it."
"There's going to be a dramatic change in the front of the glacier probably within less than a decade," Sambos said. "It’s doubled its outflow speed within the last 30 years, and the glacier in its entirety holds enough water to raise sea level by over 2 feet. Ted Scambos, a senior research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, said the glacier is the "the widest glacier in the world," and if it were to collapse, it will also take down other nearby glaciers along with it. SMARTSHOOTER, a world-class designer, developer, and manufacturer of innovative fire control optic systems that significantly increase the accuracy, lethality, and situational awareness of small arms, will display its SMASH Fire Control Systems at the Modern-Day Marine (MDM) Exhibition in Washington, DC booth 1368. Scientists say it may speed up global warming. Rain: The Arctic will soon see more rain than snow. More: Greenland's ice sheet is melting so fast, it's raising sea levels and creating global flood risk If the glacier were to continue to collapse, it would pose a threat to numerous coastal cities across the world that are already becoming more dangerous to live in due to rising sea levels. When the glacier becomes exposed, the international team of scientists fear the occurrence of ice cliff collapse, when chunks of the glacier exposed to ocean water breaks off into the water. The collapse would expose the Thwaites Glacier to ocean water, but the glacier is also suffering from cracks due to the warm water underneath. The ice shelf itself wouldn't contribute to rise in global sea levels, but it's not the same for the glacier. "The collapse of this ice shelf will result in a direct increase in sea-level rise pretty rapidly." "I visualized it somewhat similar to a car window where you have a few cracks that are slowly propagating, and then suddenly you go over a bump in your car and the whole thing just starts to shatter in every direction," Erin Pettit, associate professor of earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences at Oregon State University, said during the press conference. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.īut during a meeting with the American Geophysical Union on Monday, scientists say the eastern ice shelf holding the glacier in place has cracks rapidly accelerating that could see it collapse within the next three to five years and spell the beginning of the end of the Thwaites glacier. Ice draining from the Thwaites into the Amundsen Sea already accounts for about 4% of global sea-level rise. In January 2020, scientists said warm water was discovered underneath the Thwaites, which could speed up the melting of the 74,000-square-mile glacier located in West Antarctica.
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