Doomsday Glacier

Subject : Environment

Section: Climate change

Context: So-called Doomsday Glacier is ‘in trouble,’ scientists say after finding surprising formations under ice shelf.

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In two studies, published in the journal Nature, scientists revealed while the pace of melting underneath much of the ice shelf is slower than previously thought, deep cracks and “staircase” formations in the ice are melting much faster.
Particularly rapid melting happens at the point where the glacier meets the seafloor, which has retreated nearly nine miles (14 kilometers) since the late 1990s, exposing a larger slice of ice to relatively warm ocean water.
The complete collapse of the Thwaites itself could lead to sea level rise of more than two feet (70 centimeters), which would be enough to devastate coastal communities around the world. But the Thwaites is also acting like a natural dam to the surrounding ice in West Antarctica.
The scientists were also surprised by a second finding. They discovered an underwater glacial landscape much more complex than expected, dominated by strange staircaselike terraces and crevasses – big cracks going all the way through the ice shelf.
Warm, salty water was able to funnel through and widen cracks and crevasses, contributing to instabilities in the glacier.
Melting along the sloped ice of the cracks and terraces may become the primary trigger for ice shelf collapse.

Doomsday Glacier

Thwaites Glacier, nicknamed the Doomsday Glacier, is an unusually broad and vast Antarctic glacier.
It flows into Pine Island Bay, part of the Amundsen Sea, east of Mount Murphy, on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land.
Thwaites Glacier is roughly the size of Florida and is located in West Antarctica. Part of what holds it in place is an ice shelf that juts out onto the surface of the ocean. The shelf acts like a cork, holding the glacier back on the land and providing an important defense against sea level rise.
Every year it sheds billions of tons of ice into the ocean, contributing about 4% of annual sea level rise.