Antarctica’s Doomsday Glacier is on the edge of disaster
Antarctica – the very term conjures up the image of a virtually uninhabited, ice-covered landmass. After all, the southernmost continent and the site of the South Pole is a region, densely packed with glaciers. One such well-known glacier is the Thwaites glacier, popularly nicknamed as the Doomsday Glacier. As some of you can guess, this glacier owes its nickname to the glacier’s high risk of collapse and imminent threat to the global sea level. And now, it turns out, that the worst fear of the scientist community has become true—the glacier is hanging by a thread and is on the verge of a disaster. The findings have been published in a journal called Nature Geoscience.
Doomsday Glacier: A bird’s eye view
For those unaware, the Doomsday Glacier is located in the western part of Antarctica and is currently in a phase of rapid retreat, raising concerns among scientists and climate activists worldwide about the potential rise in sea level that can go out of control. This may result in flooding of the lower altitudes and submerging certain coastal regions across the globe. Having the size of Gujarat, the Thwaites Glacier is one of the widest ice sheets on Earth and has been worst hit by the global climate crisis. This vast glacier flows into the Pine Island Bay, that is part of the Amundsen Sea.
Doomsday Glacier: A significant factor behind rising sea level
Not many know, but the Doomsday Glacier has concerned scientists for over decades now. In 1973, geologists, after a series of studies, realised that the glacier was at a high risk of collapse as it is grounded to the seabed instead of surrounding dry land. This makes it more susceptible to melting, thanks to the forces of warm ocean currents underneath. No wonder, scientists have deemed the area surrounding the Thwaites since then as “the weak underbelly of the West Antarctic ice sheet.”
Now, fast forward to the 21st century when scientists decided to document the alarmingly fast retreat of the Thwaites in a series of studies. In 2001, satellite data revealed that the glacier’s grounding line was receding by approximately 1 kilometre annually, a number that shot up three times by 2020. This is also when the scientists discovered that warm sea water was indeed flowing across its base, thus destabilising it from below. Thereafter, a 2021 study further revealed that the Thwaites Ice Shelf, responsible for holding the glacier in place, could very well shatter within a span of five years. This will not only melt it but also push it to flow freely into the ocean, causing severe natural disasters.
Now, the latest study shows that there are visible big fractures forming across the surface of the ice shelf, in turn weakening the ice fabric. Geologists apprehend that this will soon spread across the entire glacier, thus forcing it to melt a lot faster than earlier imagined, leading to increase in sea level by several feet. So, what is still holding the Thwaites by a fingernail? A very narrow and shallow ridge underneath it. The ridge can slip any moment now, leading to four per cent of climate-change induced sea level rise.
After the latest study, geologists have revealed that understanding the recent history of the Thwaites Glacier is key to predicting Antarctic contributions in the rise in future sea levels.