Global warming
The giant Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is melting – researchers worried
The amount of ice leaving the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica has doubled in the past 30 years, according to researchers.
© NASA / Picture Alliance
The ice giant is in bad shape. The Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is splitting. Global warming is affecting him. Researchers warn of a “dramatic change”.
Scientists keep a close eye on the Thwaites Glacier. And that for decades. Now they bring bad news from western Antarctica. As a result of global warming, researchers from a British-American project warn of a “dramatic change” at the Thwaites Glacier.
Within less than ten years, a part floating on the sea on the front of the glacier could “shatter like the windshield of a car,” said the leading US glaciologist Ted Scambos from the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC) project in an interview with the BBC.
Both published and unpublished studies suggested this, the researcher continued. The reason for this is warm water that gets under the glacier.
The ice field of the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica covers the area of Florida
The Thwaites Glacier is under constant observation by scientists. They measure the speed at which the ice field is melting. The amount of ice that leaves the glacier has doubled in the past 30 years, according to the researchers.
The Thwaites Glacier, also known as the Doomsday Glacier, is located in the western part of Antarctica known as Marie Byrd Land. The ice field covers an area the size of the US state of Florida.
Should all of the ice in the glacier catchment melt one day, the sea level would rise by up to 65 centimeters, as the BBC reported. This scenario, to which the name with the Last Judgment refers, is not expected for several centuries.