The destruction of one of the glaciers in the Southwest is the biggest global threat to sea level rise before 2100, and the ice shelf that separated it from the sea may be within three It will collapse in five years. “The Twitz Glacier is one of the largest and tallest glaciers in the Antarctic,” said Ted Scambus, a glacier specialist at the Environmental Science Research Cooperative in Boulder, Colorado.
The 120-kilometer Twitz Glacier is about the size of Florida, and if it falls into the ocean, it would raise the sea level by 65 centimeters. Currently, the melting of the glacier is responsible for about 4% of global sea level rise.
According to researchers, a large part of the glacier is on the verge of losing its weak connection to the seabed, which dramatically increases its speed towards the sea.
Since about 2004, the eastern third of the Twitz Glacier has been supported by a floating ice rink. At present, the lower part of this ice platform is inclined towards the underwater mountain, which is located about 50 km from the shore. This fulcrum helps keep the ice mass in place. But data collected from below and around the ice rink over the past two years shows that this backup will not last long. The warm waters of the ocean are clearing the ice from below. As the ice platform shrinks, it retreats to land, eventually retreating completely to the back of the underwater mountain that holds it in place. Meanwhile, fractures and fissures widened by water pervade it, weakening and shattering it.
Erin Petit, a glacier specialist at Oregon State University, said the factors would cause the ice rink to collapse over the next five years. The collapse of this ice rink is rapidly raising sea levels, and this is a matter of concern.
Scientists say the Twitz Glacier is the biggest imminent threat to rising sea levels. New data suggests that the support ice rink, which helps slow down the refrigerator, may collapse within five years.
According to Science News, satellite data show that over the past 30 years, the Twittez glacier has almost doubled in speed toward the sea. The collapse of this glacier on the Day of Judgment alone will dramatically change the sea level, but its collapse will also destabilize other Antarctic glaciers, dragging more ice into the ocean and further raising the sea level.
According to Scambus, this makes the Twitz Glacier the most important place to study the impending rise in sea level. So, in 2018, researchers from the United States and the United Kingdom began a five-year joint project to study the glacier and try to predict its near future. The researchers placed devices above, inside, below and around the refrigerator. This comprehensive approach to studying the Twitz refrigerator has led to other rapid discoveries. Scientists have also studied how the tide can accelerate the melting of ice by sending warm water to the bottom of the ice and creating new melting channels.
To better understand the rapid retreat of the Twitz refrigerator, scientists have created a hole in the ice on land. The warm water (heaters shown here) created a speculation under the ice that reached the ground. Scientists were able to obtain the first measurements of ocean conditions in the region.
Some scientists are wondering if it could form very high cliffs of ice along the edge of the ocean as the Twitz Glacier and other glaciers retreat to land, which could then cause such large chunks of ice to fall rapidly, destroying water levels. Lead the sea. To determine the probability of such crashes requires an understanding of the physics and dynamics of ice behavior, of which scientists have little historical knowledge.
Researchers at the Twitz refrigerator project are also working on the issue. Anna Crawford and colleagues at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, in simulations of the Twitz Glacier retreat, found that if the ground beneath the glacier was deep enough in some places, it could lead to very high ice cliffs. But the ice itself can deform and become so thin that it is difficult to form ice.
Researchers are working to study the Twitz Glacier, but the available data have helped scientists better predict the near future of the Twitz Glacier and estimate how fast and how fast it could fall. “We are watching the world do things we have never seen before, because we are putting a lot of pressure on the climate by releasing carbon dioxide,” he added. “It’s terrifying.”
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