Why scientists are so worried about this glacier

sea-level rise will be one of the greatest challenges we face in the next century how high seas rise and how soon has a lot to do with what happens here Antarctica holds the largest chunk of ice on earth its western portion alone contains enough ice to raise sea levels by more than 3 metres and it's in big trouble largely because of this the Thwaites glacier its face towers as high as a six story building and extends for 120 kilometers across the coast of West Antarctica making it about the size of Florida it's a humongous glacier that reaches right into the heart of West Antarctica and that's a major problem because in the past couple decades it's become increasingly clear the threats glacier is falling apart [Music] these are portraits of a vast rugged treacherous continent which has challenged man since first he could sail beyond the limits of his horizon and Arctica this is the Antarctic Ice Sheet it's thickest in the Middle where years and years of snowfall compacts into ice as the middle builds it pushes ice out towards the oceans for your glaciers and the part of a glacier that floats on water is its ice shelf today manmade climate change is warming the air and water around Antarctica causing each side of the ice sheet to melt but at very different speeds the eastern ice sheet lies mostly on high ground above sea level which keeps it relatively safe from warm ocean water that means it's melting slowly and remains relatively stable but Western arctica is different most of it lies below sea level that means as it thins water can undermine it possibly kick-starting a more rapid collapse it's why West Antarctica is considered the most important piece of ice in the world when it comes to climate change here's another view of the bedrock underneath Antarctica's ice sheet the green yellow and red parts are land above sea level like in East Antarctica but these blue areas in western Arctic are are all below sea level this area where the bedrock slopes continuously for more than a mile down and deep into the center of Antarctica is the fight's glacier and it could be the most dangerous clasher in the world surrounded by three mighty oceans but these are as much a part of Antarctica as her highest mom right now waits is barely hanging on in the past 30 years the front of Thwaites ice shelf has lost a lot of ice causing it to retreat backwards with a smaller ice shelf to slow the flow of ice the flow of the glacier speeds up but the bigger problem is the closures grounding line the final point where the glacier rests on the bedrock that grounding line has been shifting backwards as warm ocean water reaches underneath the ice shelf it's moved 14 kilometers since 1992 so I said used to be on land becomes ice that is floating on water raising sea levels the downhill slope of the bedrock means that as the grounding line moves back it lifts an even bigger slice of ice behind it off the land and into the water and that accelerates the flow of the glacier into the sea the amount of ice flowing from Thwaites has doubled over the past thirty years and already contributes four percent to global sea level rise and scientists have recently detected a huge cavity two-thirds the size of Manhattan down here scientists believe this could mean Waits's collapse is inevitable how soon that happens is hotly debated leaving continent is awakening slowly at first but with ever gathering momentum the complete collapse of 3/8 will take centuries and it's affected by many different things from the temperature of the ocean currents to the makeup of the bedrock but research shows that humans can possibly slow or even stall its collapse by curbing greenhouse gas emissions soon that's important because some scientists believe collapse could start this century while others say it's already underway the collapse of weights would add about half a meter of sea level rise and trigger a much bigger catastrophe because the weights reaches into the middle of West Antarctica its collapse could cause the rest of the ice sheet to collapse with it resulting in more than 3 meters of sea level rise in the next few centuries that would submerge not only Miami and southern Bangladesh but also parts of the Netherlands and New York City so while there's a lot of uncertainty around Thwaites one thing is clear once it starts to collapse it won't stop [Music]

Channel: Vox

Views: 5,730,069

Keywords: atlas, world, antarctica, Glacier, Vox.com, vox, explain, explainer, west antarctica, ice, glacier, thwaites, climate change, melting, sea, sea level, sea-level, sea level rise, collapse, ice cap, ice shelf, poles, south pole, thwaites glacier, pine island glacier, east antarcitca, melt, global warming, retreat, scientists, climate science, earth, continent, bed rock, ocean, ocean temperatures, thwaites glacier collapse, rising sea levels, voxatlas, iceberg, doomsday glacier, doomsday glacier melting

Id: XRUxTFWWWdY

Length: 4min 58sec (298 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 13 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/ktkps]

While the Glacier size might look small compared to the overall size of the Antartica, remember that most runaway effects/snowball effects only need one push over a threshold. Thwaites glacier collapsing may be that threshold...

[u/EU7MRD]

Sea level rise will be the least of our problem when talking about climate change. Too much focus on this particular effect and not enough on conflict, food shortages, heatwaves etc....

[u/Spartanfred104]

Great video but more hopium at the end. RCP 8.5 doesn't really care about us trying.

[u/[deleted]]

Starts to sweat in Dutch

[u/Astalon18]

To also put this in perspective, this is not an immediate.

For some reason when it comes to climate change, sea rise is seen as a problem. It is a long term problem ( ie:- over a 200 year time span ) but not a 30 year range problem.

We have major 30 year range problems ... so. we should not put the cart before the horse.

Note if we solve our 30 year range problem, we solve the 200 year range problem.

[u/pancakepostulate]

Financial Times did a piece on this as well. The ice in Thwaites could cause up to 65cm of sea level rise itself (presumably over the course of the century). The glacial ice that it holds back could cause one to two meters.

[u/Mr_Lonesome]

Thwaites Glacier, aka Doomsday Glacier. One more climate crisis trigger activated in these biblical times!

[u/RipplesInTheOcean]

Hold me, im scared ):

[u/Did_I_Die]

it would be interesting to see a rogue nuclear weapon denoted at the ice pack holding Thwaites onto to the main ice sheet... thinking of a Dr. No type of evil genius doing it to create worldwide panic.