Posted on 09/09/2022 11:20:14 AM PDT by dennisw
Thwaites Glacier — otherwise known as the “Doomsday glacier,” due to the fact it could raise the sea level by several feet — is allegedly hanging on “by its fingernails.”
Scientists discovered that the glacier’s underwater base has been eroding due to the increase in the Earth’s temperature, according to a study published in Nature Geoscience.
“Thwaites is really holding on today by its fingernails,” said Robert Larter, a marine geophysicist who co-authored the study.
“And we should expect to see big changes over small timescales in the future — even from one year to the next — once the glacier retreats beyond a shallow ridge in its bed.”
West Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier is roughly the size of Florida and could potentially raise the sea level by nearly 16 feet should it fall into the ocean, which scientists predicted could happen within the next three years.
Researchers have monitored the glacier’s recession since “as recently as the mid-20th century,” according to lead author Alastair Graham, and have recorded a disintegration rate of nearly double since the last decade.
Earlier this year, an international group of scientists attempted to study the glacier in an effort to help stop the erosion, however, the group was thwarted by a chunk of ice from the doomed glacier.
Graham stated that it “was truly a once-in-a-lifetime mission” and he hopes that the team will be able to return to the glacier soon — since scientists believed the erosion was working at a slower pace before the study was published.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
These people have never observed what happens to a glass of water full of ice.
Good, let’s get it over with as soon as possible so we can start rebuilding society after all the coastal elites are gone.
Raising the ocean 16 feet will be an unmitigated disastrophe. It will definitely sink Trump’s hidden lair underneath the volcano on that south pacific island.
Where is a big crowbar when you need one?
The math will be revealed when the west contributes another 3 trillion dollars for climate change.
That would take out various coastal mansions wouldn’t it? That really would be too bad.
caused by magma release, the continent has the most ice since many years, a hysterical amount. wink
The Doomsday glacier is sitting in the water already. When it melts its volume will decrease, not increase. Don’t believe me, then fill a glass with crushed ice all the way to the top and let it melt .... guarantee it will not overflow the glass.
“Aha, so the glacier has an “underwater base” meaning it actually is situated in water and not on land.”
I said the glacier has a land base. The glaciers of Antarctica sit on land, not water. The North Pole glaciers float on water, so when they melt, does not affect sea level.
Everyone prepare to die. Now.
/sarc (yawn...)
The only problem is that there are two 14,000 foot mountain ranges between the ocean and Bad Water in Death Valley.
except hers aren’t blowups...
Here’s some cocktail napkin math.
++++++++++++++++++++
My version of napkin math to illustrate stupidity:
Surface area of Earth = 197,000,000 square miles
Surface area of Florida = 65,800 square miles
Earth has close to 3000 X surface area of Florida.
If the entire earth is to be covered in a blanket of 16 feet of water, then the depth of the chunk of ice (area of Florida) needs to be 3000 x 16’ = 48,000 feet = 9+ miles thick.
Complete and utter bull crap. Unless of course you believe men can get pregnant.
Maybe the next one.... definitely the one after that.....
So the glacier is made of water, it’s in the water, and somehow if it breaks off while it’s in the water, it is going to raise the water 2-3 feet...across the entire globe, The north Atlantic, the Mississippi river, the Caribbean, the black sea, The Indian ocean, the Arctic Circle around Russia,.... yeh,... sure
Ok, got it
If all of Greeland’s ice melted, sea levels would rise by about 25 to 30 feet. So what they’re saying about this Antarctic ice is that if all of it melted, it would raise sea levels by 16 feet, implying that it has about half the ice mass of Antarctica. That seems reasonable but the rise would not be just from that ice breaking away, it would also have to melt. A lot of it would probably just merge with the pack ice that surrounds Antarctica now. I’m not convinced that the result would be a rapid rise, more like a gradual rise of some fraction of the 16 feet. Not saying that would be great because even five feet would be a nasty outcome.
Also we have no real idea if the Thwaites glacier will all detach, or what fraction of that might melt.
My advice would be to develop response plans for sea level rises of all magnitudes, and to research ways of capturing water from melting ice for irrigation. If vast chunks of Antarctic ice could be towed to regions that need water, then they could melt in a more useful place than the southern ocean.
I am not scoffing at the research, I am just saying that many different outcomes are possible. By the way if all of the Antarctic ice melted (something that would take hundreds or even thousands of years) sea levels would rise by hundreds of feet, Greenland has only about 7% of the ice mass and the rest of the northern arctic, and high mountains all told just 1%, so 92% of land ice is down there.
A fully melted down Antarctica would submerge just about all of Florida, Louisiana and coastal Texas, as one example, or just about all of the Netherlands, Belgium and coastal Germany, the UK would look like Ireland and most of Ireland would be submerged also.
This could happen eventually if this inter-glacial goes on long enough. The last one was shorter and the Antarctic ice is probably semi-permanent through the four glacial maxima that are known to have occurred in the “recent” geological past. Greenland ice may be almost as durable but there are doubts that it survived all three inter-glacials before this one. Going back, the second of the three inter-glacials was also a longer one.
The reason I never throw my hand full ice in the swimming pool. Don’t want it to overflow. /sarc
” raise the sea level by nearly 16 feet”
Still 1584 feet too low to make me care.
16 feet across the entire globe? BS,BS,BS
There goes the seaside mountain property I was hoping for.
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