The Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica is melting due to rising water temperatures, which threatens to raise sea levels by half a meter. An article about this was published on February 15 in a scientific journal Nature.
Scientists have found that warm water penetrates the cracks in the lower part of the glacier, and it melts at a rate of 30 m per year, since the temperature of the water at the glacier is 1.5 degrees above freezing.
The size of the glacier is comparable to the area of the American state of Florida. At the same time, its melting can destabilize neighboring glaciers and, in the future, further increase the level of the World Ocean.
One of the authors of the study, Britney Schmidt, an expert from Cornell University, pointed out that the issue of the melting of the Thwaites Glacier is “something that we should all be very concerned about.”
In turn, the program director for Antarctic sciences at the National Science Foundation, Paul Cutler, who studied the research materials, noted that the achievements of scientists will help in the development of climate change models.
In October last year, Vladimir Pinaev, Associate Professor at the RUDN Institute of Ecology, told Izvestia that a 2.5-degree rise in the Earth’s temperature could lead to the melting of glaciers, which would cause the water level to rise and flood coastal areas.
