UC Irvine-led team uncovers 'vigorous melting' at Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier

[Bundbuster]

2. Another article from Salon

https://www.salon.com/2024/05/23/scientists-worry-so-called-doomsday-glacier-is-near-collapse-satellite-data-reveals/?in_brief=true

Miles and miles below the surface, the glacier is destabilizing as ocean water rushes underneath its core structures. Scientists learned this thanks to high-resolution satellite radar data that shows Thwaites is being flooded with warm sea water, according to the study published in the journal PNAS.

Thwaites is the world's widest glacier, spanning approximately 80 miles and reaching depths of roughly 2,600 to 3,900 feet, or roughly the same size as the state of Florida. It rests on downward sloping land and is therefore vulnerable to the ocean's eroding effects. Thwaites already single-handedly contributes to four percent of the world's total sea level rise, and if it entirely collapses, global sea levels will rise by more than ten feet.

"The rushing of seawater beneath grounded ice over considerable distances makes the glacier more vulnerable to melting from a warmer ocean than anticipated, which in turn will increase projections of ice mass loss," the study's authors write. As UC Irvine professor and lead author Eric Rignot said to CBS News, "We see the seawater coming in at high tide and receding and sometimes going farther up underneath the glacier and getting trapped."