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Thwaites Glacier is an unusually broad and vast Antarctic glacier located east of Mount Murphy, on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land.It was initially sighted by polar researchers in 1940, mapped in 1959–1966 and officially named in 1967, after the late American glaciologist Fredrik T. Thwaites.
Through images Icefin beamed back, they discovered the glacier is melting in unexpected ways, with warm ocean water able to funnel through deep cracks and “staircase” formations in the ice.
The glacier already contributes 4% of sea level rise as it sheds billions of tons of ice a year into the ocean. Its complete collapse could raise sea levels by more than 2 feet.
The Thwaites Ice Shelf has acted like a dam for the eastern portion of glacier, bracing it and allowing for a slow melt rate, in contrast to the undefended western portion. [ 4 ] [ 6 ] According to the American Geophysical Union in a 2021 study, the Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf (TEIS) buttresses one-third of Thwaites glacier .
The Thwaites Glacier on the vast West Antarctica Ice Sheet is commonly called the "Doomsday Glacier" because of its potential to significantly raise sea levels, inundating low-lying coastal ...
One of the most closely watched glaciers in the world could soon melt faster than expected, a shift that could lead to sudden rises in sea levels.
Britney Schmidt (born 1982/1983) is an American earth scientist and astrobiologist [1] at Cornell University.She has conducted research on the melting of ice shelves in Antarctica and studied Jupiter's moon Europa.
While Antarctica’s “Doomsday Glacier” is still headed for catastrophe as the Earth warms, scientists said this week that some expected worst-case scenarios could be unlikely this century ...