They discover that the Doomsday glacier is melting at a tremendous speed, and these will be the consequences.

Thwaites Glacier, also called the Doomsday Glacier, is located in Antarctica and is similar in size to the state of Florida (USA). It is about 120 kilometers wide and 1.2 kilometers deep. The problem is that, like many other giant blocks of ice, it is eroding at an alarming rate.

How to collect 20 minutesa group of scientists from the University of California at Irvine (USA) published a study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which show evidence of the melting of this glacier. In particular, they indicate that the penetration of warm sea water under high pressure has been detected many kilometers below the glacier.

This situation causes the ice to break away from land and settle again, so that it melts every time it touches seawater. So far it has only touched the edge of the glacier, but researchers believe the “vigorous melting” could accelerate within 10 to 20 years.

Christine Dow, co-author of the study and research fellow in the Department of Environment at the University of Waterloo in Canada, explains that “Thwaites is the most unstable place in Antarctica, with sea levels rising by 60 centimeters.” It is for this reason that the scientist warns that “we are underestimating the rate of glacier change, which will have devastating consequences for coastal communities around the world.”

These will be the consequences of the thaw

If the rate of melting of this glacier increases, the hardest hit areas will be Vancouver, Florida, Bangladesh and low-lying Pacific islands such as Tuvalu or the Marshall Islands. However, Dow notes that “at this time we do not have enough information to say one way or another how long it will be before the intrusion of ocean waters becomes irreversible.”

“We will try to get estimates of sea level rise that are at least recorded over decades, not centuries. This work will help people adapt to changes in sea levels and focus on reducing carbon emissions to avoid the worst case scenario,” the researchers confirm.