Antarctica’s ‘doomsday’ glacier is heading for catastrophic collapse | As a six-year investigation into the Thwaites glacier in Antarctica wraps up, the scientists involved are pessimistic for the future of this glacier and the consequences for sea level rise

From the article :-

”A six-year investigation into the vast Thwaites glacier in Antarctica has concluded with a grim outlook on its future. Often dubbed the “doomsday glacier”, this huge mass of ice is comparable in size to Britain or Florida and its collapse alone would raise sea levels by 65 centimetres. Worse still, this is expected to trigger a more widespread loss of the ice sheet covering West Antarctica, causing a calamitous sea level rise of 3.3 metres and threatening cities like New York, Kolkata and Shanghai. 

“It’s not going to instantaneously lead to a catastrophic retreat in the next year or the year after, but, at the same time, we are very sure that Thwaites is going to continue to retreat, and ultimately the retreat is going to accelerate,” says Rob Larter at the British Antarctic Survey, another member of the team. “We can’t put an exact time frame on that.” 

Ultimately, however, the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITCG) researchers think that, by the end of the 23rd century, Thwaites glacier and much of the West Antarctic ice sheet might be lost. The slightly better news is that we still have time to influence how rapidly this process occurs, by making drastic efforts to reduce carbon emissions. “We can buy us time,” says Morlighem. “We still have control on how quickly Thwaites loses mass”

We won’t have to Thwaites much longer then?

(I’ll get my wetsuit..)