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In 2024, research indicated that instead of a relatively narrow grounding line which separates the parts of the glacier exposed to water and those safely behind them, there is a wider grounding zone of 2–6 km (1.2–3.7 mi) which is regularly exposed to water. Some areas of the glacier are additionally exposed to meltwater flowing another 6 ...
The Thwaites Ice Shelf is one of the biggest ice shelves in West Antarctica, though it is highly unstable and disintegrating rapidly. [2] [3] Since the 1980s, the Thwaites Glacier, nicknamed the "Doomsday glacier", [4] has had a net loss of over 600 billion tons of ice, though pinning of the Thwaites Ice Shelf has served to slow the process. [5]
Some named Antarctic iceshelves. Ice shelf extending approximately 6 miles into the Antarctic Sound from Joinville Island. An ice shelf is "a floating slab of ice originating from land of considerable thickness extending from the coast (usually of great horizontal extent with a very gently sloping surface), resulting from the flow of ice sheets, initially formed by the accumulation of snow ...
Scientists have long known Florida-sized Thwaites was vulnerable, in part because of its geography. The land on which it sits slopes downwards, meaning as it melts, more ice is exposed to ...
Its most vulnerable parts like Thwaites Glacier, which holds about 65 cm (25 + 1 ⁄ 2 in) of sea level rise equivalent, are believed to require "centuries" to collapse entirely. [53] Thwaites' ice loss over the next 30 years would likely be around 5 mm of sea level rise between 2018 and 2050, and between 14 and 42 mm over 100 years. [40]
An edge of the Thwaites Glacier meets the frigid, dark blue water of the Southern Ocean. The glacier, which is around the size of Florida, is the widest glacier on Earth.
Greenland ice sheet as seen from space. An ice sheet is a body of ice which covers a land area of continental size - meaning that it exceeds 50,000 km 2. [4] The currently existing two ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica have a much greater area than this minimum definition, measuring at 1.7 million km 2 and 14 million km 2, respectively.
New research on Antarctica's rapidly melting Thwaites Glacier is providing some of the clearest insights yet into how the ice shelf is thinning from below. Scientists take a peek below Antarctica ...