Scientists have warned that Antarctica’s Thwaites glacier, which is capable of causing a rise of up to 50cm in global sea levels, is “in trouble”. For the first time, experts have assessed the glacier’s critical grounding line, where ice first meets the sea, using a torpedo-shaped robot that was lowered through half a kilometre of ice.
The robot detected a critical point in Thwaites’ chaotic breakup, where material was streaming out of the glacier due to fast melting. While the underwater area the scientists investigated was melting slower than expected, crevasses were detected, which are even more damaging than melting.
The glacier has been melting primarily from beneath, through a process called “basal melting”.
The more the glacier retreats, the more ice floats in water, leading to a rise in sea levels. Experts expect that Thwaites will continue to change rapidly over the next few years.