Geothermal Activity Under Antarctic Ice Sheet Bring Thwaites Glacier on Brink of Collapse Due to Excessive Melting

Thwaites Glacier is found to be heating itself underground the vast ice sheet of Antarctica. Because of the geothermal activity, the once silent glacier is pushed on the verge of knocking itself down to a point never seen before from the southern continent.

Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier

The Antarctic is not only composed of thick ice and cold bodies of water. It is also home to one of the largest known massive ice chunks that move on its own, also called glaciers.

Thwaites Glacier is among the biggest glaciers that are located in the southern hemisphere. However, climate change heavily impacted the said ice chunk and removed over 540 billion metric tons of ice from the main body.

Along with the departure of its largest part, Thwaites caused a massive shift in the global rising sea level, contributing an estimated 4% to the increase. The destruction of the Thwaites Glacier served as an indicator of the worst effects of global warming.

Experts observed the Thwaites Glacier over the past three decades to record changes and activities. Unfortunately, the melting rates of the glacier significantly increased over time.

According to a report by Live Science, the reason behind the loss of Thwaites ice was the seawater beneath the glacier itself. Due to the warmer climate on the Antarctic continent, the temperature of water bodies surrounding the ice sheet became abnormally high, resulting in the collapse.

Climate change, such as the warmer atmospheric and oceanic temperature, is indeed a factor in the separating ice chunk of Antarctica. However, in a new study, an additional aspect was identified to be pushing the limits of the intact body of Thwaites Glacier - the Earth's geothermal heat flow.

ALSO READ: Supporting Evidence of Earth's 200-Million-Year Magnetic Field Cycle Discovered From Lava Flows

Thwaites Glacier Melting Due to Thinner Crust and Geothermal Activity

Experts analyzed the planet's concealed temperature and geomagnetic field data in the southern ice sheet, specifically at western Antarctica's glaciers, to find how the planet itself affects the ice chunks.

The whole coverage of the research was published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, titled "High Geothermal Heat Flow Beneath Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica Inferred From Aeromagnetic Data."

Experts determined that the melting of Thwaites Glacier results from the warming crust that spans throughout the Antarctic ice sheet.

An Alfred Wegener Institute and Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research researcher and study lead author Ricarda Dziadek said, "Our measurements show that where the Earth's crust is only 17 to 25 kilometers thick, geothermal heat flow of up to 150 milliwatts per square meter can occur beneath Thwaites Glacier."

In addition, the crust beneath the western regions of Antarctica, measured at 17 to 25 kilometers thick, was found to be much thinner compared to the crust under the eastern parts of the ice sheet that spans up to 40 kilometers thick. Due to the thinner structure of western Antarctica's crust, the Thwaites Glacier became more vulnerable to the geothermal activities of Earth.

AWI expert and co-author of the study Karsten Gohl said that high levels of geothermal heat could possibly affect the glaciers by warming up the glacier bed excessively, leading to the presence of water and eventually melting the glaciers.

Further studies will be conducted on the correlation between the melting of Thwaites Glacier and the geothermal effects inflicted on the Antarctic ice sheet.