As of: March 6, 2024, 6:28 p.m
By: Nico Reiter
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The Antarctic glacier loses tons of ice every year.
Researchers have now identified the trigger for the melting and explain why it continues.
Antarctica – At 128 kilometers wide, Thwaites Glacier is the widest glacier in the western part of Antarctica.
An underwater vehicle was lost there during a recent research mission.
Despite its impressive size, the glacier loses more ice than it can build up through snowfall.
It loses around 50 billion tons a year, threatening its stability.
Now the starting point of the giant glacier's sharp retreat appears to have been found.
Elsewhere, too, the melting of glaciers is changing the earth.
According to researchers, half of the glaciers should have disappeared by 2100.
Melting of the Thwaites Glacier began as early as the 1940s
It has been noted since the 1970s that the ice on the glacier is increasingly melting.
However, the exact start of this process was previously unknown.
A recent study now appears to have identified the starting point and trigger of the significant melting processes.
The Thwaites Glacier, also known as the “Doomsday Glacier,” is receding © Stocktrek Images/Imago
Researchers at the University of Houston have found that the severe ice loss began much earlier, in the 1940s.
Not only was the Thwaites Glacier affected at this time, the Pine Island Glacier also began to shrink during this period.
“What's really important about our study is that this change was not random or specific to one glacier,” explains Rachel Clark, lead author of the study, on the university website.
“It is part of the larger context of climate change.”
Glacier retreat was originally triggered by a warm phase
The scientists report that the changes were triggered by an El Niño warm phase.
According to the
German Weather Service,
this is a periodic 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 to the seabed is also due to external factors.
The Thwaites Glacier, also known as the “Doomsday Glacier,” is retreating © Picasa/Imago
The decline was therefore triggered by changes in ocean 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,” reports co-author James Smith.
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