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Warm Water Melts 'Doomsday Glacier' Half a Mile Each Year, Finds Study

Recent research led by the University of California, Irvine has discovered warm, high-pressure seawater causing significant melting under the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica. "There are places where the water is almost at the pressure of the overlying ice, so just a little more pressure is needed to ...

Interesting Engineering reports: A team of glaciologists led by researchers at the University of California, Irvine employed high-resolution satellite radar data to uncover evidence of the warm, high-pressure seawater intrusion beneath the glacier. A statement by the scientists noted that the widespread contact between ocean water and the glacier -- a process replicated throughout Antarctica and in Greenland -- causes "vigorous melting" and may require a reassessment of global sea level rise projections. Co-author Christine Dow, professor in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada alluding to the glacier in question said that the Thwaites is the most unstable place in the Antarctic and contains the equivalent of 60 centimeters of sea level rise.

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