Researchers studying 'doomsday glacier' make worrying discovery

Antarctica's "doomsday glacier," referred to as such for its potential to dramatically raise global sea levels, is melting faster than we thought thanks to warmer sea water passing below it, according to a new study.

(NEXSTAR) – Antarctica's "doomsday glacier," referred to as such for its potential to dramatically raise global sea levels, is melting faster than we thought thanks to warmer sea water passing below it, according to a new study.

The researchers, led by glaciologists with the University of California, Irvine (UCI), said in a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the Thwaites Glacier may be breaking apart "much faster" than previously believed.

The Florida-sized glacier, which faces the Amundsen Sea, has gotten the nickname the “doomsday glacier” because of how much ice it has and how much seas could rise if it all melts — more than two feet (65 centimeters) over hundreds of years.

Thwaites is on Antarctica’s western half, east of the jutting Antarctic Peninsula, which used to be the area scientists worried most about.

For years, experts have worried about the possible demise of the Thwaites Glacier, whether by ocean water melting it from below, the glacier unmooring from its attachment to the seabed or the ice mass cracking and breaking apart.

Using satellites and a technique called radar interferometry to track changes in surface elevation, the team found that the glacier appeared to be lifting several centimeters as pressurized tide water moved below the glacier across many miles, further inland than previously thought.

"There are places where the water is almost at the pressure of the overlying ice, so just a little more pressure is needed to push up the ice," lead author and UCI Professor Eric Rignot said. “The water is then squeezed enough to jack up a column of more than half a mile of ice.”

Warmer seawater working its way under the glacier may help explain the "rapid, past, and present changes in ice sheet mass and the slower changes replicated by ice sheet models," the study noted, adding that the pressurized seawater will create a "vigorous melt" that will further imperil the glacier.

"Thwaites is the most unstable place in the Antarctic and contains the equivalent of 60 centimeters of sea level rise," co-author Christine Dow, professor in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, told UCI News. "The worry is that we are underestimating the speed that the glacier is changing, which would be devastating for coastal communities around the world.” 

Dow said it's still not clear how much time is left before the ocean water's damage to the glacier is irreversible, but she is hopeful the discovery will lead to more accurate models.

"It will take many decades, not centuries" for the Thwaites Glacier to fully melt," Rignot told USA Today. "Part of the answer also depends on whether our climate keeps getting warmer or not, which depends completely on us and how we manage the planet."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.