In Antarctica, the warm ocean is stealthily attacking a major glacier through a previously unknown route — undermining its foundation on a daily basis.
As each rising tide lifts the coastal terminus of the southern continent’s Thwaites Glacier a tiny bit off the seafloor, warm salty water squeezes in underneath, satellite measurements reveal. This inrush of seawater forces its way many kilometers inland as it melts the ice from beneath. The melt water and seawater are then flushed back out
SAN FRANCISCO — Most of the news regarding the Thwaites Glacier, a Florida-sized slab of ice that is melting and currently contributing about 4 percent of global sea level rise, is bad. But a bit of good news may have emerged.
A seismic survey of the bed beneath an upstream section of Thwaites has revealed rough high-rises of earth under the Antarctic glacier, which are comparable in height to the Manhattan skyline, glaciologist Coen Hofstede reported December 12 at a
Out on the bow of the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer, the air is dense and almost warm. We have punched through miles of Antarctic ice floes to reach the Amundsen Sea’s foggy interior. I want to honor the remaining distance between us and Thwaites Glacier’s calving front––this place that many scientists suggest could make a catastrophic impact on global sea levels but that no one, as of this moment in February of 2019, had ever before visited by ship––and yet
Residents in Alaska’s capital, Juneau, were urged on Monday to stay away from the Mendenhall River after flooding from a glacier destroyed two buildings and eroded riverbanks in the city over the weekend. Local officials declared a state of emergency.
Water released from Suicide Basin — an ice-covered depression near the Mendenhall Glacier, which is about 13 miles from the city — caused the Mendenhall River to flood on Saturday.
Floodwaters have been receding since the burst, according to the
Officials in Alaska have been forced to issue an emergency statement after huge flooding because of a major release from Suicide Basin above the capital of Juneau.
Video posted on social media showed towering trees behind a home falling into the rushing river as the water ate away at the bank. Eventually, the home, teetering at the edge, also collapsed into the river.
River levels were falling Sunday but the city said the banks of the river remained highly unstable.
The coastal plain of the Kamb Ice Stream, a West Antarctic glacier, hardly seems like a coast at all. Stand in this place, 800 kilometers from the South Pole, and you see nothing but flat ice extending in every direction. The ice is some 700 meters thick and stretches for hundreds of kilometers off the coastline, floating on the water. On clear summer days, the ice reflects the sunlight with such ferocity that it inflicts sunburn in the insides of
A pristine 1956 Porsche 356A today could be worth in excess of £200,000.
But instead of preserving the classic German sportscar, one racer has converted hers into a snowmobile.
Renée Brinkerhoff, an American philanthropist racing driver, is preparing for the final stage of her Project 356 World Rally Tour in Antarctica, which involves sprinting in her vintage Porsche across the most extreme terrain yet.
Fitted with snowtracks at the rear and a pair of skis at the front, the 65-year-old
A pristine 1956 Porsche 365A today could be worth in excess of £200,000.
But instead of preserving the classic German sportscar, one racer has converted hers into a snowmobile.
Renée Brinkerhoff, an American philanthropist racing driver, is preparing for the final stage of her Project 356 World Rally Tour in Antarctica, which involves sprinting in her vintage Porsche across the most extreme terrain yet.
Fitted with snowtracks at the rear and a pair of skis at the front, the 65-year-old
