Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica, often known as the ‘doomsday glacier,’ is retreating at an alarming rate because of the hazard it poses to the global sea level in the event of a collapse.
CNN reports that scientists are concerned about the glacier’s rate of underwater erosion as a result of global warming and that, should the glacier completely collapse in the near future, the sea level could rise to dangerous heights.
Researchers compared historical data on the retreat of the Thwaites Glacier in the study that was published in the journal Nature Geoscience and came to the conclusion that the rate had increased significantly over the previous two centuries and had nearly doubled in the previous decade, causing ‘swift disintegration.’
In the future, once the glacier retreats beyond a shallow ridge in its bed, we should expect to see big changes over short timescales, even from one year to the next, according to Robert Larter, one of the study’s co-authors. ‘Thwaites is really hanging on by its fingernails today,’ Larter said in the release.
Although the levels are now not so hazardous, the researchers think that if the rate continues to worsen, the sea level might rise by at least 16 feet in a very short amount of time.
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