(ORDO NEWS) — Measurements carried out by scientists showed that the Thwaites Glacier loses approximately 2-5.4 m of thickness per year as a result of contact with warm water, which is several times lower than the results of theoretical calculations.
For the first time, climatologists have accurately measured the rate of melt at the base of Thwaites Glacier, one of West Antarctica‘s most vulnerable ice masses, and have uncovered an unexpectedly slow overall rate of melt at the base of this ice mass.
The discovery deepens the mystery of the anomalously rapid shrinkage of the Thwaites Glacier.
“The results of our measurements are surprising, but despite all this, the existence of the Thwaites Glacier is still under threat.
Even if its base is melting more slowly than we thought, this glacier is still rapidly retreating, which indicates its high vulnerability to subsequent changes in water balance of Antarctica,” said BAS researcher Peter Davis, quoted by the organization’s press service.
Davis and his colleagues have taken the first detailed measurements of the rate at which the base of the Thwaites Glacier is melting.
This information is critical not only for assessing how much a given ice mass is warming up and how much mass it directly loses as a result of contact with warm ocean water, but also for understanding the speed with which the Thwaites Glacier “slides” into the sea.
To obtain such information, scientists drilled a hole 587 m deep at a distance of 1.5-2 km from the edge of the Thwaites Glacier and immersed a set of Icefin scientific instruments into it.
It allowed climatologists to continuously track the speed of water movement, its salinity, temperature and many other parameters at a depth of one and a half meters from the line of contact between the foot of the ice massif and ocean water.
Measurements carried out by scientists have shown that the Thwaites Glacier is losing approximately 2-5.4 m of thickness per year as a result of contact with warm water, which is several times lower than the results of theoretical calculations based on observations of the overall reduction in the mass of this ice massif.
According to climatologists, this suggests that the contribution of the melting of the base of the Thwaites Glacier to the overall reduction in its mass is now greatly overestimated.
As scientists suggest, the abnormally rapid reduction in the volume of the Thwaites Glacier can be explained by the fact that inside its thickness, as data and images from Icefin show, there are a large number of cracks, crevasses and other defects where water freely penetrates.
This leads to their saturation with heat and salt, which dramatically accelerates the melting of the glacier in its individual regions. This must be taken into account when building forecasts for the future of West Antarctica, climatologists summed up.
Melting of the foot of the glacier
The area of Antarctic glaciers has been shrinking rapidly in recent years as temperatures have risen by 4 to 9 degrees Celsius higher than in past centuries.
Of particular concern to climatologists are two large ice massifs in Antarctica – the Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers, located on the western coast of the southernmost continent of the Earth.
As researchers recently discovered, their foot is washed by streams of warm water, which has noticeably accelerated melting in the past three decades.
Discoveries like these have created a huge interest among climatologists to study what happens at the foot of the Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers and how these processes affect the speed of movement of these ice masses towards the sea.
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