See never-before-seen footage captured 600 meters below the surface of Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier, popularly known as “Doomsday Glacier”
A study conducted by scientists from Cornell University, in the US state of New York, has produced, with the aid of the Icefin submarine robot, images of what is happening under the Thwaites glacier in Antarctica. OR fusion affecting the huge mass of ice – popularly known as the “Doomsday Glacier” – acted upward.
- ‘Doomsday Glacier’ may be melting much faster than previously thought
- Antarctica’s glacier is melting and could cause ‘doomsday’
The Thwaites Glacier’s apocalyptic nickname already suggests that the scientific community is worried about its melting. No wonder: by itself, the glacier approaching the size of the state of Santa Catarina could contribute 65 centimeters of sea level rise over the next few centuries. To understand exactly how this process is happening, Cornell researchers got to the root of the problem.
Icefin is a hybrid underwater research instrument, autonomous or remotely controlled, equipped with high-resolution cameras and radar to investigate aquatic environments up to 1 kilometer deep. Furthermore, it is able to measure the physical and chemical parameters of the water.
On its mission to Thwaites Glacier, Icefin captured images of the peculiar melting underpinning the system. The point where the glacier meets the seabed, known as the grounding line, has retreated about 14 kilometers since the 1990s. For the first time, scientists have obtained images of the process.
The research findings so far have already been published in two articles in the journal nature. In addition, some footage, such as the Icefin robot’s 600-meter descent through the ice in the video above and excerpts from his investigation, have been released on video.
One of the key Icefin discoveries was the pattern forming beneath the glacier. Cracks known as crevasses, natural appearances due to ice movementthey also appear at its base.
Britney Schmidt, lead scientist on the project, says that “these new ways of looking at glaciers allow us to understand that it’s not just how much they are meltingbut also how and where it happens.”
Source: nature [1] AND [2] Through: Scientific alarm
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