The melting of the “apocalypse glacier” is a growing concern.
The Thwaites Glacier, located in western Antarctica, is 120 km wide, 600 km long and 3 km deep.
The latter would be more and more fragile, according to the latest observations made public on Monday, reports
Franceinfo
.
"The final collapse of the last ice shelf of the Thwaites Glacier (which makes up a third of the glacier) could begin with the intersection of cracks and hidden crevasses in as fast as five years", explain the glaciologists.
Satellite data, underground radars and GPS have made it possible to identify breaks on this platform, which serves as a buttress to the glacier.
The Threat from #Thwaites: The Retreat of Antarctica's Riskiest Glacier — Ice sheet's demise poses the biggest threat for sea-level rise this century
Missed our # AGU21 press conference on Thwaites?
Check out our press release >> https://t.co/VwxfmgOfZ2 pic.twitter.com/4iusbBHdEG
- CIRES Communication (@CIRESnews) December 13, 2021
"The Achilles Heel of West Antarctica"
The ice structure is weakened by warmer seawater that seeps in from below. “Worrisome information” according to Catherine Ritz, glaciologist at the Institute for Environmental Geosciences: “This glacier is really the Achilles heel of West Antarctica (…) and what prevents it from falling is this weakened floating part. With the collapse of this platform, the glacier's detachment could be accelerated, as could its melting in ocean waters.
Thwaites is already believed to be responsible for 4% of the 20 centimeters of sea level rise seen today.
The figure could therefore increase and the consequences could be dramatic.
The disappearance of the glacier, which should take place in a few centuries, would cause the sea level to rise by 65 centimeters.
All the water in West Antarctica could cause this sea level to rise by 3.3 meters.
Irreversible, this scenario would be caused in particular by our too carbon-intensive lifestyles and by global warming.
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