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Antarctica's 'Doomsday Glacier' Is in Serious Danger, New Research Confirms - ScienceAlert
Sep 17, 2020 53 secs

That's partly because the Thwaites, a Britain-sized glacier in western Antarctica, is melting at an alarming rate: It's retreating by about half a mile (2,625 feet) per year.

"It's a major change, a rewriting of the coastline," David Holland, a professor of atmospheric science at New York University who contributes research to the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, told PBS NewsHour in February.

A study published Monday, meanwhile, used satellite imagery to show that sections of Thwaites and its neighbor, the Pine Island Glacier, are breaking apart more quickly than previously thought.

Crevasses like those in the image of Pine Island Glacier above form near glaciers' shear margins: areas where fast-moving glacier ice meets slower-moving ice or rock, which keeps it contained

The new PNAS study found that shear margins on the Pine Island and Thwaites Glaciers are weakening and breaking apart, which could cause ice to flow into the ocean

That organization, the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, studies the glacier via icebreaker ships that can break through thick ice sheets. 

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