What Did The Scientists Found Under The Doomsday Glacier?

The Doomsday Glacier has been the subject of everyone's attention lately, which is understandable because it brings with it many mysteries under the threat of catastrophe.

To get to the bottom of it, scientists had to use ice-breaking ships and underwater robots to find out that Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is melting at an accelerating rate and could be on an irreversible path to collapse, spelling catastrophe for global sea level rise.

Nonitoring the glacier is no easy task. Scientists have been doing this since 2018, where they formed a called the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. The group have been studying Thwaites — often dubbed the "Doomsday Glacier" — up close to better understand how and when it might collapse.

Their findings, set out across a collection of studies, gave the world a clear picture of this complex and ever-changing glacier. The outlook is "grim," the scientists said in a report published recently, revealing the key conclusions of their six years of research.

They found rapid ice loss is set to speed up this century. Thwaites’ retreat has accelerated considerably over the past 30 years, said Rob Larter, a marine geophysicist at the British Antarctic Survey and part of the ITGC team. "Our findings indicate it is set to retreat further and faster," he said.

The scientists project Thwaites and the Antarctic Ice Sheet could collapse within 200 years, which would have devastating consequences.

Thwaites holds enough water to increase sea levels by more than 2 feet. However, because it also acts like a cork, holding back the vast Antarctic ice sheet, its collapse could ultimately lead to around 10 feet of sea level rise, devastating coastal communities from Miami and London to Bangladesh and the Pacific Islands.

Computer modeling, however, showed while this phenomenon is real, the chances of it happening are less likely than previously feared.