If there is one place in this world that is directly affected by global warming, it's Antarctica. According to a recent study, a part of Antarctica is shrinking due to climate change. Now, an international team of scientists has reached the Thwaites glacier in the icy continent to perform an experiment for them to be able to see why the glacier is melting so fast.
WHY DID THE SCIENTIST CHOOSE THE THWAITES GLACIER?
A team of scientists from the United States National Science Foundation and the United Kingdom's Natural Environmental Research Council collaborates in an effort to fully understand the rapidly changing glacier. They call the team International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. According to ITGC, there is a complex set of interactions between the atmosphere, the ice, and the ocean the Thwaites Glacier. Warmer waters are pushed up from under the sea onto the area called the continental shelf wherein the water flows at the bottom until it reaches the grounding line or the area where ice begins to float. The warmer waters are the ones responsible for melting the ice in the region and in recent years, the rate of Thwaites glacier melting is becoming alarmingly high: Thwaites glacier is melting at least tens of feet per year.
The Thwaites glacier has been reported to lose an estimated 540 billion tonnes of ice ever since the 1980s and in the recent measurements done by the scientists, Thwaites glacier melting is speeding up, making water flow into the Amundsen Sea. To be able to fully document and understand the cycle in the Thwaites glacier, researchers are preparing to drill more than half a kilometer of ice in the glacier. In this 600-meter hole, researchers will be able to submerge a torpedo-shaped robotic submarine which will examine the underside of the glacier.
In a press release stated by ITGC, David Vaughan, director of science at the British Antarctic Survey explains that although there are a lot of glaciers in the continent that undergoes melting, Thwaites glacier is the one that will have a bigger impact.
GETTING THROUGH AN INHOSPITABLE ENVIRONMENT
The Thwaite glacier is among the remotest and most inhospitable places on Earth that is why it is a big challenge for the researchers just to reach the area. Along with the drilling equipment, the researchers traveled for weeks just to reach the drilling station situated 1,500 kilometers from the Rothera station and the McMurdo station.
The researchers only have a limited number of days for them to complete the drilling and deploy the submarine and finally retrieve it due if bad weather persists. They also have to install a monitoring instrument into the ice before it freezes again. Using this methodology, Vaughan explains, "the aim is to do it as rapidly as possible. All of this will happen in three to four days. They really can't afford to muck about."
However, scientists from NASA were able to find a massive cavity in the base of Thwaite glacier through their ground-penetrating radar. The cavity was so huge, it measures at least ⅓ the size of Manhattan. It was formed after 13 billion tonnes of ice melted from the Thwaite glacier over the past three years, according to the researchers. This cavity allows water to get below the Thwaite glacier and trigger its melting.
Early this week, the researchers unleashed radar-equipped sledges over the ice to measure the thickness around the area where the glacier leaves land and extends to the sea. This map will help the researchers find the right areas to drill a hole and once they get a green light, they will use a hot water drill to create a 30-centimeter hole through the ice.
