Thwaites Glacier: Why Scientists are so worried about it?

 

In the next century, rising sea levels will be the ultimate challenge we face. How soon is this going to happen and how much seas rise? It all depends on what’s going to happen here. Antarctica holds the largest mass of ice on earth. Only the western portion alone contains enough ice to raise the sea level up to 3 meters. And that portion is in big trouble. Mostly because of the Thwaites glacier. It faces towers as high as a six-story high building and extends up to 120km along the coast of West Antarctica. It’s almost the same as the size of Florida. It’s an enormous glacier that reaches the heart of West Antarctica. The major problem is that because the Thwaites glacier reaches the heart of West Antarctica and from the last two decades, it is clear now that, this glacier is melting and falling apart. These are portraits of a vast, rugged, treacherous continent, Which has challenged man since first he could sail beyond the limits of his horizon. Antarctica is the ice sheet. It is thick from the middle, where years and years of snowfall turn into ice. As the middle builds, it pushes the ice out into the water via glaciers. The part of the glacier that floats on the water is known as the “Ice Shelf.” 

Today man-made climate change is warming the earth. Climate change also impacting the air and water around Antarctica, causing different sides of ice sheets to melt at different speeds. The Eastern Ice sheet resides on high ground and above sea level, therefore it is still safe from the warm water of the ocean. This means it is still relatively safe and stable and melting at a slow rate. But the Western side is different, it mostly lies below sea level, warm ocean water affecting it directly and it is getting thin and could collapse more rapidly. This is why West Antarctica is considered the most important piece of ice when it comes to climate change.

There is another view of the bedrock beneath the Antarctic ice sheet. The green, yellow and red parts are above sea level, Like East Antarctica. However, all these blue areas of West Antarctica are below sea level. The area where bedrock continuously falls to a depth of more than a mile in central Antarctica is the Thwaites Glaciers. And it could be the most dangerous glacier in the world at the moment. Surrounded by the three mighty oceans, Thwaites are hardly holding up.

Over the last 30 years, the front side of the Thwaites ice shelf has lost a lot of ice, resulting in its decaying backward. Using small ice shelves to slow the flow of ice will make the glacier flow faster. But the bigger problem is glaciers’ “Ground line”. The last point of a glacier on bedrock. This groundline moves backward as warm water moved under the ice shelf. It has moved 14 km since 1992. In this way, the ice once was on the land now become the ice that floats on the water and rises the water level. The downhill slope of the bedrock means that as the baseline recedes, the larger ice sheet behind it is lifted from land into the water. And it accelerates the outflow of the glacier into the sea. The amount of ice flowing from the Thwaites has doubled in the last 30 years. And it has already contributed 4% to the rise in the level of sea level. And scientists have recently discovered a huge cavity here that is two-thirds the size of Manhattan. Scientists believe that this could mean the collapse of Thwaites is inevitable. How could this happen is a hot debate. The sleeping continent awakens. Slowly at first but there is more momentum now.  The complete collapse of Thwaites may take centuries and will be affected by many things, from ocean current temperature to bedrock composition.

However, research shows that by immediately curbing greenhouse gas emissions, humans may be able to delay or stop the collapse. This is important because some scientists believe that collapse could start in this century. The Collapse of Thwaites could raise the sea level up to 0.5 meters and it can cause a huge catastrophe. As Thwaites spread to the Midwestern United States, its collapse could collapse the remaining ice sheet and could raise the sea level to 3 meters in the next few centuries. It will flood not only Miami and Bangladesh but also parts of the Netherlands and New York City.

So while there is still a lot of ambiguity around Thwaites, One thing is for sure, once it starts to collapse… it won’t stop.