‘Doomsday Glacier’ could double sea-level rise by 2100
ScienceDaily Sabah

‘Doomsday Glacier’ could double sea-level rise by 2100

New research finds Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier is melting twice as fast as thought, and could add 30mm to sea levels by 2100.

One of the world’s largest glaciers is melting much faster than previously understood and could contribute about twice as much to global sea-level rise...

The Long Sip
What happened

A study published in Nature Communications found Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier is melting far faster than previous models suggested.

The detail

Researchers found tidal pumping drives warm seawater deep beneath the ice, potentially doubling the glacier's contribution to sea-level rise to 30mm by 2100.

What it means

The findings raise fresh concerns about coastal flooding worldwide, with the glacier already losing around 50 billion tons of ice every year.

For you

The study, published in Nature Communications, found warm ocean water is pushing kilometres under the ice and melting it from below, a process previous models underestimated.

Full story at Daily Sabah

What readers are saying

max1968
Thirty millimeters doesn't sound like much until you work out what that means for insurance, property values, and infrastructure spending. We're already forking out billions for flood mitigation along the coasts. Double the sea-level rise by 2100 means DOUBLE the cost of protecting our cities. And that's before we factor in what happens when councils can't afford the upgrades and people start losing their homes to permanent inundation.
jamilah_broadmeado
The tidal pumping mechanism is the kicker here - warm water getting pushed kilometres under the ice rather than just nibbling at the edges. It means the previous models were fundamentally underestimating what was happening beneath the surface, which is a pattern we're seeing across climate science.
bazz1988
If you're thinking about coastal property as an investment, the article mentions a 60 percent chance the glacier detaches from the ridge that's currently holding it back. That's worth knowing before you commit to anything beachside for the next seventy-odd years.
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