Antarctica's 'Doomsday Glacier' is on the verge of collapse: Study warns massive ice sheet the size of Great Britain could cause global sea levels to rise by 2 feet

With the potential to cause sea levels to rise across the planet, it's no wonder Thwaites Glacier has earned the nickname “Doomsday Glacier.”

Now scientists have revealed alarming findings about how and when the glacier collapsed.

Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) used underwater robots to take new measurements of the glacier, which is about the size of Great Britain.

Data suggests that Thwaites Glacier and much of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could disappear completely by the 23rd century.

Worryingly, experts say that if it collapses completely, global sea levels will rise by two feet (65 cm), which will lead to huge areas being submerged under water.

Thwaites Glacier is about 74.5 miles (120 kilometers) wide—the same size as Great Britain or Florida—making it the widest glacier on the planet.

Thwaites Glacier is about 74.5 miles (120 kilometers) wide – about the size of Great Britain or Florida.

This makes it the widest glacier on the planet.

In some places, it is more than 6,500 feet (2,000 meters) thick — about 2.5 times the size of the Burj Dubai, the world's tallest building.

Previous studies have shown that the volume of ice flowing into the sea from Thwaites and its neighbouring glaciers more than doubled from the 1990s to the first decade of the 21st century.

Moreover, the wider region, called the Amundsen Sea Gulf, is responsible for a staggering eight percent of the current rate of global sea level rise of 4.6 mm per year.

Thwaites Glacier is about 74.5 miles (120 kilometers) wide—the same size as Great Britain or Florida—making it the widest glacier on the planet.

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Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) used underwater robots to take new measurements of the glacier, which is the size of Great Britain.

In their new study, the team set out to develop a more reliable prediction of how and when the Thwaites River will change in the future.

“There is consensus that Thwaites Glacier retreat will accelerate sometime over the next century,” said Dr Rob Larter, a marine geophysicist at BAS.

“However, there are also concerns that additional processes revealed by recent studies, which have not been studied well enough to be included in large-scale models, may cause the decline to accelerate even more rapidly.”

The new study suggests that the Thwaites River will collapse by the 23rd century at the latest.

“It is alarming that the latest computer models project continued ice loss that will accelerate during the 22nd century and could lead to a large-scale collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the 23rd century,” said Dr. Ted Scambos, US science coordinator for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a glaciologist at the University of Colorado.

The Thwaites River is “extremely vulnerable” because of its location, researchers say.

Its ice lies on a very low layer below sea level, which slopes down towards the heart of West Antarctica.

“The Thwaites River has been in retreat for more than 80 years, accelerating dramatically over the past 30 years, and our results suggest it is set to retreat even more rapidly,” Dr Larter added.

Alarmingly, if the entire West Antarctic ice sheet collapsed, it would cause global sea levels to rise by 10.8 feet (3.3 meters).

Alarmingly, the complete collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would cause global sea levels to rise by about 10.8 feet (3.3 meters).

This will have a huge impact on hundreds of millions of people on coasts from Bangladesh to low-lying islands in the Pacific, and from New York to London.

Based on the findings, the researchers are calling for urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – one of the main factors driving the Thwaites River's melting.

Dr. Scambos added: “Immediate and sustained climate intervention would have a positive impact, but its impact would be delayed, particularly in modifying the delivery of warm deep ocean waters that are the main driver of the retreat.”