- Apr 3, 2003
- 31,085
- 14,010
- 78
- Country
- United States
- Gender
- Male
- Faith
- Catholic
- Marital Status
- Married
- Politics
- US-Libertarian
Hundreds of iceberg earthquakes detected at the crumbling end of Antarctica’s Doomsday Glacier
Earthquakes at the Doomsday Glacier
Thwaites Glacier is sometimes known as the Doomsday Glacier. If it were to collapse completely it would raise global sea levels by 3 metres, and it also has the potential to fall apart rapidly.About two-thirds of the events I detected – 245 out of 362 – were located near the marine end of Thwaites. Most of these events are likely glacial earthquakes due to capsizing icebergs.
The strongest driver of such events does not appear to be the annual oscillation of warm air temperatures that drives the seasonal behaviour of Greenland glacier earthquakes.
Instead, the most prolific period of glacial earthquakes at Thwaites, between 2018 and 2020, coincides with a period of accelerated flow of the glacier’s ice tongue towards the sea. The ice-tongue speed-up period was independently confirmed by satellite observations.
Hundreds of iceberg earthquakes detected at the crumbling end of Antarctica’s Doomsday Glacier
The seismic echoes of capsizing icebergs falling from Thwaites Glacier have been detected for the first time.
theconversation.com