Warm water found under glaciers 

| Read time: 3 minute(s)

Global warming is real, and we need to accept it. Nature keeps giving signs time and again about the amount of deterioration we are doing to our environment. Sea levels keep rising due to melting glaciers, coastal areas witness unusual phenomenon, weather has become more truant... Now it has come to notice that for the first time, scientists have discovered warm water underneath the Thwaites Glacier, which earned the nickname Doomsday Glacier for being Antarctica’s fastest melting glaciers. Measuring 74000 sq m, this glacier is estimated to be the size of Florida in the United States of America. Why is it alarming? This discovery has raised an alarm about the glacier collapse, which can lead to nearly 3 ft rise in the sea level. The place where the glacier is in contact with the sea has been recorded as 2 degree celsius above the freezing temperature. The significance of Thwaites lies in the fact that it slows the ice behind it from easily entering into the ocean. It is not clear, however, to find out the rate of deterioration of the glacier. According to studies, it might fully collapse in 100 years or in a few decades. The warm water present in the grounding line hints at the possibility of a faster collapse. How was it found? Reportedly, an underwater robot called Icefin made its way underneath the surface of the melting glacier and discovered the unusually warm temperature. It was a bright yellow remotely operated robot submarine that was dropped via a 2300 ft deep hole, which was drilled through the glacier. Did you know Glaciers too have types. Alpine glaciers flow downwards from mountaintops and slide through valleys. Continental glaciers, on the other hand, are large, horizontal expanses that aren’t seriously affected by the hills or mountains they cover. They generally dwarf their alpine counterparts

Global warming is real, and we need to accept it. Nature keeps giving signs time and again about the amount of deterioration we are doing to our environment. Sea levels keep rising due to melting glaciers, coastal areas witness unusual phenomenon, weather has become more truant…

Now it has come to notice that for the first time, scientists have discovered warm water underneath the Thwaites Glacier, which earned the nickname Doomsday Glacier for being Antarctica’s fastest melting glaciers. Measuring 74000 sq m, this glacier is estimated to be the size of Florida in the United States of America. 

Why is it alarming?

This discovery has raised an alarm about the glacier collapse, which can lead to nearly 3 ft rise in the sea level. The place where the glacier is in contact with the sea has been recorded as 2 degree celsius above the freezing temperature. 

The significance of Thwaites lies in the fact that it slows the ice behind it from easily entering into the ocean.

It is not clear, however, to find out the rate of deterioration of the glacier. According to studies, it might fully collapse in 100 years or in a few decades. The warm water present in the grounding line hints at the possibility of a faster collapse. 

How was it found?

Reportedly, an underwater robot called Icefin made its way underneath the surface of the melting glacier and discovered the unusually warm temperature. It was a bright yellow remotely operated robot submarine that was dropped via a 2300 ft deep hole, which was drilled through the glacier.


Did you know

Glaciers too have types. Alpine glaciers flow downwards from mountaintops and slide through valleys. Continental glaciers, on the other hand, are large, horizontal expanses that aren’t seriously affected by the hills or mountains they cover. They generally dwarf their alpine counterparts


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