As of: February 28, 2024, 11:51 a.m
By: Nico Reiter
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The Thwaites Glacier has been in retreat for decades.
A research team has now been able to determine what triggered the meltdowns and why they continue.
Antarctica – At 128 kilometers, the Thwaites Glacier is the widest glacier in western Antarctica.
Just recently, an underwater vehicle was lost during research work there.
Despite its impressive size, the glacier loses more ice than it gains from snowfall.
It is losing around 50 billion tons per year, which is now endangering its stability.
Researchers are trying to save the glaciers from melting.
The origin of the sharp decline is now said to have been discovered.
Severe melting of the Thwaites Glacier began as early as the 1940s
It has been observed since the 1970s that more and more ice on the glacier is melting.
However, it was still unclear when exactly the process started.
A new study is now said to have found the start time and trigger of the significant melting.
The Thwaites Glacier, also known as the “Doomsday Glacier,” is receding © Picasa/Imago
Researchers at the University of Houston have found that the sharp decline in ice began much earlier, in the 1940s.
Not only was the Thwaites Glacier affected at this time, the Pine Island Glacier also began to recede during this period.
"What's really important about our study is that this change was not random or specific to one glacier," Rachel Clark, lead author of the study, said on the university's website.
“It is part of the larger context of climate change.”
Glacier retreat originally triggered by warm phase
The researchers describe that the changes were triggered by an El Niño warm phase.
According to the
German Weather Service,
this is a recurring climatic phenomenon in the Pacific in which unusually warm winds circulate.
The glaciers have not recovered since then.
“Once the system is out of balance, the decline continues,” says Clark.
The loss of connection with the seabed is also due to external factors.
The decline was therefore triggered by changes in sea and air circulation and not by internal or local events.
“Our research provides significant evidence that the retreat of an ice layer, once started, can continue for decades, even if the trigger does not get worse,” says co-author James Smith.
Austria's glaciers are also affected; they are in a “dramatic thawing process”.
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