Warm ocean tides are eating away at ‘doomsday glacier’ in Antarctica

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By ELI KINTISCH, Science. 

Excerpt: Ocean tides are burrowing beneath a thick sheet of Antarctic ice—dubbed the “doomsday glacier” for its threat to global sea levels—and melting it from below. The daily intrusions of seawater, detected by satellites, mean the Thwaites Glacier may be disintegrating “much faster” than previously thought, scientists say in a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Melting at Thwaites, an expanse of ice bigger than Florida that stores enough water to raise sea levels by 0.6 meters, already accounts for 4% of global sea level rise. Because the glacier rests on bedrock that dips inland into a deep basin, its underbelly is vulnerable to relatively warm seawater, which melts the ice and, by loosening it from bedrock, hastens its flow into the ocean. And because other West Antarctic glaciers drain into the same basin, scientists believe Thwaites acts as a keystone. Its removal could accelerate the other glaciers’ collapse, potentially unleashing more than 3 meters of global ocean rise in coming centuries. In 2021, researchers noticed fissures on the floating ice at the ocean foot of the glacier, suggesting its crackup may already be underway.... 

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