ANTARCTICA’S DOOMSDAY GLACIER: “While uncertainty remains about exactly what will happen, one thing is for sure – the retreating Thwaites glacier will continue to add to global sea levels for many years to come,” stated Dr. Ella Gilbert, climate scientist at the University of Reading (January 2022)
“Thwaites glacier, the widest in the world at 80 miles wide, is held back by a floating platform of ice called an ice shelf, which makes it flow less quickly. But scientists have just confirmed that this ice shelf is becoming rapidly destabilised. The eastern ice shelf now has cracks criss-crossing its surface, and could collapse within ten years. If Thwaites’ ice shelf did collapse, it would spell the beginning of the end for the glacier. Without its ice shelf, Thwaites glacier would discharge all its ice into the ocean over the following decades to centuries.” stated Dr. Ella Gilbert.