Adding 65 cm to global sea level will completely change the coastlines. To date, the sea level has risen by about 20 cm since 1900, which is already forcing coastal communities out of their homes and exacerbating environmental problems such as flooding, groundwater salinization and loss of habitats.
By Ella Gilbert, University of Reading
The massive Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica contains enough ice to raise global sea levels at 65 cm If it collapses completely. And worryingly, Recent studies indicate this whose long-term stability is in doubt as the glacier bleeds more and more melted ice.
Adding 65 cm to global sea level will completely change the coastlines. To date, the sea level has risen by about 20 cm Since 1900, which is already forcing coastal communities to leave from their homes and exacerbates environmental problems such as flooding, groundwater salinization and loss of habitats.
But the fear is that Thwaites, sometimes called the "doomsday iceberg" because of his central role in the region, will not be the only one to melt. If it empties into the ocean it could trigger a regional chain reaction and drag nearby glaciers with it, which means a rise of several meters in sea level. This is because the glaciers in West Antarctica are considered vulnerable to the so-called mechanism Instability of the sea ice cliff or MICI, where retreating ice increasingly exposes tall, unstable ice cliffs that collapse into the ocean.
A sea level rise of several meters will inundate many from the big cities Worldwide - including Shanghai, New York, Miami, Tokyo and Mumbai. It will also cover large areas in coastal areas and mainly engulf low-lying island nations such as Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Maldives.
As big as Britain
Thwaites is a frozen river of ice the size of Britain which already contributes about 4% of the increase Sea level the global Since 2000, the glacier has lost more than 1000 billion tons of net ice, and this figure has steadily increased over the past three decades. Its flow speed has doubled in 30 years, which means that twice as much ice was ejected into the ocean compared to the 90s.
Map of the Amundsen Sea Basin including the Thwaites Glacier. Credit: European Geosciences Union
The 130 km wide Thviats Glacier is the largest glacier in the world. It is held by a floating ice surface called an ice shelf, which restrains the glacier and makes it flow more slowly. but Scientists have confirmed That this ice shelf is rapidly destabilizing. The ice shelf is now riddled with fissures crisscrossing its surface, and it could collapse within XNUMX years, according to Erin Petty, a glaciologist at Oregon State University.
This work shakes up my findings A study published in 2020 Asher also noted the development of cracks on the Thwaites Ice Shelf and these indicate that it is structurally weakened. This damage can cause a positive feedback when breaking up parts of the glacier can promote further weakening and eventually cause the entire ice shelf to disintegrate.
If the Thwaites Ice Shelf does collapse, it will herald the beginning of the end of the glacier. Without its ice shelf, the Thwaites Glacier will dump all its ice into the sea in the coming decades.
Other unstable glaciers
The ice shelf - which can be thought of as a floating extension of the Thwaites Glacier - is one of several that scientists are watching closely in the Amundsen Sea Basin in West Antarctica. Several ice shelves holding back glaciers there, including Thwaites and its next-door neighbor, Pine Island Glacier, are being eroded by rising ocean temperatures.
Warmer ocean water is able to undermine these floating ice shelves, which begin to melt from their undersides. This mass can thin the ice and weaken it, allowing the cracks and fractures observed on the surface to develop. This mass, driven by the ocean at the bottom of the ice shelf, also pushes the anchor point where the ice meets the sea floor. As sea ice recedes downward in the Amundsen Sea, this can cause the glaciers to lose equilibrium and melt.
Ultimately, if the ice shelves recede, this means that there are fewer forces holding the glaciers in West Antarctica - which will accelerate their contribution to global sea level rise.
While the Thwaites collapse could certainly cause a wholesale collapse event, not all scientists believe it will. other job indicates that the destabilization of the Thwaites Ice Shelf and Glacier may not lead to catastrophic results. Sea ice and pieces of ice breaking off from the ice shelf and the collapsing glaciers may have a similar restraining effect to the entire ice shelf, interrupting the chain reaction in ice and preventing a sustained collapse of the entire West Antarctic ice sheet.
But while uncertainty remains about what exactly will happen in West Antarctica, one thing is certain - the retreating Thwaites Glacier will continue to add to global sea level for many years to come.
Written by Ella Gilbert, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Climate Science, University of Reading.
This article was first published On The Conversation website, CC licensed, translation: Avi Blizovsky
46 תגובות
If I understand, the glacier sits on a continental shelf followed by an abyss, so as soon as it slides over the shelf it will sink into the sea water,
That's why the comment with solid ice and 4%, etc. is not relevant in most cases the glacier is not floating, it sits on a shelf and will inevitably cause flooding
hahaha nothing melts and is not drawn by NASA the earth is flat and horizontal the sea level can only be in a flat earth the earth is not in motion because in a land in motion you would never be able to hit targets or land from planes the sun and the stars move around us and the sky closes in on us there is no going out and no coming
Space and billiard balls spinning in space only exist in NASA studios
The water overthrows the entire false centrocentric model of the Greek idol worshipers and at the beginning of the 20th century, based on this, a priest devised the contemporary model that the Freemasons market to anyone
Whenever you are thirsty, go to the water...
What will raise the level of sea water is the intervention of humans in the climate (cloud seeding for example). There really isn't a global climate crisis. World emergencies are simply sought to sow fear and control the economy and people
Once in the seventies the best demographers from all over the world gathered for a conference and its conclusions were that by the year 2000 the earth will contain 7 billion people and since there are not enough agricultural land reserves it will not be possible to produce enough food, and therefore half of the US population (180 million!!) people will die of hunger !!
Today is 2022 and the most common disease in approx. The country is the disease of obesity... (a quote from a letter by Israel Segal).
So regarding the glaciers, I'm guessing that in 50 years we will read the article and laugh..
By the way Bennett has already written a pamphlet on how to solve the problem.
You just have to read and apply.
Friends, anyone who writes that the water will not rise because the glacier is already in the water does not really understand the behavior of the water. Water has a phenomenon called "water anomaly" this means that water does not behave like other liquids and that when it freezes its volume actually increases. We won't go into the reason this happens but the result is that the ice floats on the surface of the water!! Therefore its volume does not raise the surface of the water. Like if we put a ping pong ball in a tank with water it won't raise the level of the water because it floats on the surface of the water. But if we put an iron ball into the tank the water will rise because it lifts a quantity of water of its size. If the glacier melts it will become a liquid, and its liquid will join the water that is inside the oceans so that is not good. \
איציק
It is far from balanced - the average amount of ice over a year is decreasing at a high rate, and the sea level is indeed rising.
You don't have to be a genius to understand what is going to happen - humanity's addition of PAD to the atmosphere causes more energy to be absorbed from the sun.
The effects are many - the melting of glaciers, rising sea levels, more extreme weather phenomena, shifting of the seasons, change in the flow in the oceans, even more accelerated extinction of species, decrease in crops, more wars....
Yes you have to be a fool to deny that. The covid epidemic taught us how stupid there are……
Haim Brand
What you said is a common mistake. It is true that the area has increased, but the layer is very, very thin - so the amount of ice in total is still much lower.
Most of the respondents will say, did you study reading comprehension?
The ice shelf may be touching the water and therefore maybe (just maybe) won't affect the water level.
But a huge glacier that is outside the water and falls into it raises the water level according to its volume (you can trust the calculation that claims an increase of 65 cm).
And we haven't mentioned here at all the tsunami wave that will be created when an iceberg of such a large size falls into the sea. This is not a person who jumps headfirst. It's a block of ice the size of Great Britain...
And if this shock brings down more huge glaciers (chain reaction or any other name), the sea level will rise much more than 65 cm (how high is our Tel Aviv?).
In short, stop thinking you're being laughed at. It could definitely be real.
Sorry to ruin your naive celebration...
The sea level will not change even by one centimeter. The glacier is burning in the water. It doesn't matter if it's ice or water, its mass is already there
And how much energy did they spend to preserve the glacier for the entire duration of the games?
The Chinese created a completely snowy area from the desert following the Winter Olympics.
Won't all the countries of the world find a way to make the glacier not melt??
If you want, it's not the melting..
And that's why real estate prices in Manhattan are crashing? Even Hussein Obama doesn't believe this nonsense, bought a mansion that according to these predictions will flood.
80 percent of the Jewish population is on the coastal strip between Ashkelon and Nahariya. In the central mountains you know who is there. Just putting it here
Fake news spread by the lobbyists of the energy companies. The glaciers are melting at an alarming rate in both Antarctica and Greenland
It doesn't balance. Global warming means everything is heating up
It is true that an ice shelf floats on the sea and melts, neither raising nor lowering the sea level, but the article emphasizes that the melting of the sea shelf will cause the land glacier to melt, so the addition of glacier water to the sea water will cause the sea level to rise. The article is right about this. is it clear now?
It is true that an ice shelf floats on the sea and melts, neither raising nor lowering the sea level, but the article emphasizes that the melting of the sea shelf will cause the land glacier to melt, so the addition of glacier water to the sea water will cause the sea level to rise. The article is right about this. is it clear now?
Question: If in the South Pole there is a melting of glaciers in the North Pole, there should be freezing and re-condensation of ice, which means it balances out. Why will the sea level rise?
A. A floating glacier displaces the same amount of water as the water melted from it, so there will be no rise in sea level (almost, because of the difference in salinity).
B. According to the studies, there was a large decrease in the area of glaciers until 2012. And since then, the area of glaciers has been increasing. so no worries.
"West Antarctica". A very professional and accurate term. Want to explain why it's not East Antarctica?
Sorry, Ketoni, I think this is a collection of nonsense
Maybe stop scaring with nonsense.
The sea water rose by 20 cm in one hundred and fifty years.
It's kind of like a tiny wave in a very calm sea.
Also, a glacier that floats in water and melts does not raise the sea level at all.
Enough with these stupid scaremongering.
For most of the world, this is not due to a lack of care for nature, it is a matter of survival in order not to be left behind in front of the world powers, for example Japan, what other choice did she have when she sees "failed" countries being conquered one after another? Only because they wanted to preserve a tradition like the Indians and even the Chinese. All that is left for her is to become westernized and self-destructive. And even those who do not pollute are the first to suffer from the pollution, for example the Inuit who are most threatened by the melting of the glaciers
Matan, the psychic below me, also claims that the earth is flat.
Don't take any of his nonsense seriously.
Here is the daily scaremongering from the Masonic House.
If
glacier
melts,
No
will be expensive
is nothing
to the level
the water!!!
The glacier is arranged in the water in such a way that the volume that melts is equal to the volume of the water in which the glacier was first, and therefore nothing will happen to the water level (by extension: a glacier whose upper part that is above the water melts, the glacier "realigns itself" with the entire smaller volume (above and below the water), therefore the part The bottom inside the water also rises, and thus the melted water is equal to the water under the glacier that was).
And in simple words - nothing will happen to the water level! And no city will be flooded because no water level will change!
The alien scaremongering is more credible than the climate crisis scaremongering
The article is translated from a peer-reviewed website and written by the scientists who conducted the study.
Nothing, only Ahkariot, Nahariya, Jaffa, and Tel Aviv to the west of Ahsan Gvirol, but other than that Marquis everything is fine. Apart from that also New York Amsterdam and more but apart from Marquis everything is fine
Nothing will happen in Israel, it will affect islands in the middle of the sea.
It is only humans fault that this happens. Because of our use of harmful substances and because of a complete lack of care for nature, things like this happen. We need to protect our world because we don't have another one and getting another world will not be possible in the near future so humans should drive the world carefully and protect nature
The ice shelf, most of which is entirely at sea level, will not cause a significant increase in sea level volume. We all learned in first grade nature class that ice expands when it freezes, therefore all the threatening snow mountains will be reduced to a few centimeters of water when they melt and it will be swallowed by the huge amount of water in the oceans.
Why not fly the water to the desert?
130 km wide….the size of Great Britain?
A 20 cm rise in sea level since 1900?
On the one hand, you will prove that the sea rose like this, at the time they were not measured at all. On the other hand, this is before the beginning of the "human influence on the climate" in the middle there was a cooling that scared all the scientists...
In short, it's a hoarding of nonsense, it's a waste of scientific information that it's a shame to waste time refuting it, the "scientists" are funded by foundations we are not, instead of looking for cures for diseases they are looking for nonsense and wasting money that could have saved human lives
I am debating whether to delete the "celebrity" from my news sites. Such headlines are not serious, they only lower the level of public discussion and make me personally feel low level.
It sounds very pretentious, to say that the sea level will rise by 65 cm, I'm taking it somewhat lightly. Because the volume of the glacier as a solid is almost equivalent to the melted one. This is why I wonder about the rise in the level with the melting of the glacier.
Most of the writers are young, surely they don't remember that about sixty years ago they wrote and scared in the newspapers about the new ice age.
Just as we passed the new ice age in peace, the Almighty who "by chance" created and manages the world will pass the age of global warming in peace.
In any case, all the scientists have no real ability to really affect the warming. At most they can warm and pad their paycheck.
Don't misunderstand, I don't mind that they make a good profit, just that they don't introduce unnecessary anxieties to the bank.
What to do ??
Meanwhile, the ice area in Antarctica has increased by 10 percent.
Archimedes knew this about 2500 years ago. It is not clear how a floating glacier raises the water level when it melts and goes from a state of accumulation of ice to water. Theoretically, because the glacier contains fresh water, it should even lower the sea level due to the difference in water density.
To my father - so for each specific study you will have an argument that diminishes its findings, this is a propaganda tactic, not science. The main idea of the deniers of the climate crisis is to claim that there is no connection between all the phenomena and that every phenomenon has a local cause. The earth is one unit, so this is a rather childish approach.
To Michael Koren: Responding to a disaster is always much more expensive than preventing it.
As for the ice - it does occupy the same volume, but most of it is actually in one place, and rises to a great height, when the ice melts, the water will disperse according to the law of the combined vessels and will take up space in the oceans.
You don't need to mark the glacier on the map - why is it necessary? Everyone will guess what he looks like and where he is early!
Why won't the Mediterranean countries "save" themselves by planning and building a dam in Gibraltar and a smaller one in Suez (of course with the possibility of passing ships with secondary dams?
The Doomsday Glacier is undermining not because of climate change but because of underground volcanic activity. A presentation on the topic on the green blog website.
Question: After all, ice occupies the same volume in water when it is frozen or liquid, why will the sea level rise when the ice shelf breaks or melts?
Why do you think readers have the patience to read such a long article (like the exile).
cut short
reduce
When I see your address, I immediately skip to the end and close.
Basically because of Archimedes' law if I'm not mistaken, the melting of the glaciers does not contribute to the rise of the water level, but the glaciers that are on land. worth sharpening