The most recent studies predict a faster retreat for the Thwaites Glacier and that warm ocean currents are already speeding the melting of the Pine Island Glacier and Ice Shelf and Getz Ice Shelf. A NASA Icebridge flight detected a major new rift in the Pine Island ice shelf on October 14Â - the start of the calving of a massive iceberg. A recent paper in Nature Geoscience discusses the Stability of the West Antarctic ice sheet in a warming world and the likelihood of collapse that would raise sea level by more than three metres over the course of several centuries or less.
Thwaites Glacier expected to accelerate
The latest study of the Thwaites glacier has identified an underwater ridge critical to the future rate of flow of the glacier. The ridge currently holds back the glacier hindering its speed and discharge. As the glacier detaches from the ridge sometime in the next 20 years, it is expected to accelerate into the Amundsen Sea.
Geophysicist Robin Bell, study co-author, compared the ridge in front of Thwaites to a person standing in a doorway, holding back a crowd. “Knowing the ridge is there lets us understand why the wide ice tongue that used to be in front of the glacier has broken up," she said. “We can now predict when the last bit of floating ice will lift off the ridge. We expect more ice will come streaming out of the Thwaites Glacier when this happens."
“The bathymetry is the roadmap for how warm ocean water reaches the edges of the ice sheet," she added. “Ridges like this one and the one discovered in front of Pine Island Glacier stabilize ice sheets, but can also be a critical part of the destabilizing process." Read the full report here.
Source: by Takver, Indymedia.
