Doomsday Glacier - What's Next?

The climate emergency routinely uncovers multiple “doomsday” scenarios, events and cascade points – the Thwaites Glacier is another entry on the ledger that could send humanity back to the Middle Ages. 

The Thwaites Glacier has been called the "doomsday" glacier and the "most important" glacier in the world, BBC News explained. The glacier, roughly the size of Britain or Florida, already contributes four percent a year to global sea level rise. Not only that, it acts as a stop on the rest of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which could raise sea levels by more than three meters (approximately 10 feet).

Thwaites hasn’t been on the top of the global disaster list because it is so remote, a factor that has limited the ability of scientist to take on-site measurements. Researchers have now made the journey and taken measurements of the water temperature below the glacier.

Researchers specifically took measurements from the glacier's grounding zone. That's the place where the glacier's ice moves off of bedrock and into the sea, NYU explained. Thwaites is especially precarious because the bed it rests on slopes downward, according to BBC News. As warm water melts the ice between the glacier's surface and the bedrock, the glacier retreats and the ice on top is more likely to break off. "The fact that such warm water was just now recorded by our team along a section of Thwaites grounding zone where we have known the glacier is melting suggests that it may be undergoing an unstoppable retreat that has huge implications for global sea level rise," Holland told NYU.

The ramifications of the climate emergency become more crystal clear every day - except in Washington, DC. 

                                                                                                                                                                                  Photo: NASA