The "Doomsday Glacier" may come sooner than anticipated with an extreme spike in ice loss. During periods of rapid retreat within the last few centuries, the glacier could be triggered again through melt caused by climate change.
Thwaites Glacier is the same size as the state of Florida in the U.S. or the entire United Kingdom and is slowly melting into the ocean. The glacier gets its ominous nickname because of the "spine- chilling" implications of its total liquidation, which could raise global sea levels between 3 and 10 feet. According to the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, the ice mass is retreating twice as fast as it was 30 years ago.
The Thwaites Glacier is held in place by jagged points on the seafloor that slow its slide into the water. Grounding points are sections of the ocean that grab hold of a glacier's underside.
In the new study, an international team of researchers used an underwater robot to map out one of Thwaites' past grounding points. During the last two centuries, the glacier's ice mass retreated more than twice as fast as it does now, according to the map.
There is a chance that the 'Doomsday Glacier' could meet its doom within three years.
The new map is like a crystal ball that shows us what could happen to the glacier in the future if it detaches from its current location. If warmer waters melt away the glacier's guts it could become more likely in the future.
The co-author of the study said that turbans is holding on. Big changes should be expected in the future.
The researchers used the underwater robot Rn to map out the area, which took 20 hours to complete.
The map shows that the bump is covered with 160 parallel lines that make it look like a barcode. The grooves are between 0.2 and 0.7 m deep. The spaces between the ribs range from short and wide to long and wide.
The ribs were left behind when the high tide lifted the glacier off the seafloor and the low tide lowered it. The lines show the gradual movement of the glacier over a period of around six months. The differing depths and spaces between the ribs correspond to the cycle of spring and neap tides, with the glacier being moved farther and with greater force during the latter. High and low tides are different during the spring. High and low tides are different during neap tides.
The leader of the study said it was like looking at a tide gauge on the seafloor. The data is beautiful, it really blows my mind. He said that the grooves on the seafloor are cause for concern.
When the Thwaites glacier was anchored on the bump, the ice mass retreated at a rate of between 1.3 and 1.4 miles per year. Satellite data shows that the glacier was retreating almost three times as fast as it was in the past.
At the same time, heat waves hit the north and south of the planet.
Researchers don't know when the glacier sat on top of the bump, but they believe it was sometime before the 1950s. The team had to retreat from the region because they couldn't take the necessary core samples from the ocean because of the icy conditions. The team is going to answer this important question soon.
The Thwaites glacier experienced "pulses of very rapid retreat" even before the effects of climate change increased the current rate of ice loss. It shows that the glacier has the ability to accelerate much more quickly if it detaches from its current anchoring point and moves to a new one.
The research has shown that warm water beneath the glacier may be melting, which could push the glacier towards this tipping point.
Once the glacier retreats beyond the current shallow ridge in its bed, it could take just a few years to accelerate to a similar rate of retreat.
The study was published in a journal.
The original article was published on Live Science.
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