Research team will collect rocks, study ice surface elevation changes, conduct bedrock drilling, and more to understand the glacier and surrounding ocean system.
Nearly 100 scientists and support staff depart this week (13 November 2019) for the most ambitious mission to date for Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica. In the second year of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC), researchers from the United States (U.S.) and United Kingdom (U.K.) will work in one of the most remote and inhospitable areas on Earth. It’s a five-year quest to understand the glacier and surrounding ocean system and its future contribution to global sea level.
Thwaites Glacier, covering 192,000 square kilometers (74,000 square miles)—an area the size of Florida or Great Britain—is particularly susceptible to climate and ocean changes. Over the past 30 years, the amount of ice flowing out of the region has nearly doubled. Computer models show that over the next several decades, the glacier may lose ice even more rapidly, as ice retreat progresses. Already, ice draining from Thwaites into the Amundsen Sea accounts for about four percent of global sea level rise. A run-away collapse of the glacier would lead to a significant increase in sea levels of around 65cm (25 inches) over the coming centuries.
Professor David Vaughan, Director of Science at British Antarctic Survey and lead scientific coordinator for the ITGC in the U.K. says:
“I’ve been working in Antarctica for over 30 years and for many years we’ve known that Thwaites Glacier holds the key to a much better understanding of sea-level rise. This is our first chance to get a deeper understanding of this unknown yet important glacier.
“Due to its remoteness, fewer than 100 people have ever set foot on Thwaites Glacier. So what we’re planning is hugely ambitious and challenging. This joint U.K./U.S. effort will make a real difference to our ability to provide governments with the right information for policy and business actions that will help protect coastal cities, ecosystems and vulnerable communities in the future.”
Continue reading at The International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration
Image via The International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration
