Antarctica’s Doomsday Glacier

  • Called the Thwaites Glacier, it is 120 km wide at its broadest, fast-moving, and melting fast over the years.
  • Because of its size (1.9 lakh square km), it contains enough water to raise the world sea level by more than half a metre.
  • Studies have found the amount of ice flowing out of it has nearly doubled over the past 30 years.
  • Today, Thwaites’s melting already contributes 4% to global sea level rise each year.
  • It is estimated that it would collapse into the sea in 200-900 years.
  • Because of the risk it faces, and poses, Thwaites is often called the Doomsday Glacier (Doomsday meaning warning or threat, something that can cause destruction).

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