5-Yr US/UK Antarctic Expedition Launches In October To Study "Doomsday" Thwaites Glacier

[hatrack]

The precarious state of a vast, remote Antarctic glacier will provide an inaugural mission for the British vessel once dubbed Boaty McBoatface, as scientists from the UK and US set up a new £20m research operation. Scientists from both countries are to collaborate on the five-year project to examine the Thwaites glacier in west Antarctica, a major structure that drains an area about the size of the UK.

Any firm indication that the glacier could be responding to a warmer climate with faster icemelt could presage disaster for coastal areas of the globe, with the potential for sea-level rises some scientists put as high as 1.5m by the century’s end. One of the principal research vessels will be the RSS Sir David Attenborough, the £200m research ship originally voted to be christened Boaty McBoatface in an online poll two years ago. The joke name lives on in the ship’s remotely operated submarine.

EDIT

Sea-level rises are a hotly contested area of climate science. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has forecast that average sea-level rises could be held to roughly 25cm to 40cm if governments take strong action on greenhouse gases. However, this does not take account of the potential for rapid melting or collapse of glaciers in Antarctica.

Satellites already show the Thwaites glacier is changing rapidly, but only by putting researchers close to the glacier itself will it be possible to measure the rates of ice volume and ice mass change. Remote submersibles such as Boaty McBoatface will be essential: recent research showed that the undersea melting of Antarctic glaciers is more of a problem that had been thought. If the expedition discovers stability in the Thwaites glacier, it could assuage some of the worst fears of climate experts.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/30/20m-study-to-investigate-collapse-risk-of-major-antarctic-glacier

[Boomer]

1. Got to love the article's optimism

If the expedition discovers stability in the Thwaites glacier, it could assuage some of the worst fears of climate experts.

Good luck with that.

[hatrack]

2. "Doctors were heartened by the 15% survival rate among hemorrhagic fever victims."

"'It's almost 50% higher than our first epidemiological surveys indicated, which is really substantial grounds for hope', noted Dr. Howard Lovecraft of Miskatonic University's medical school."

[Boomer]

3. LOL

And btw, while I've got your attention, thank you SO MUCH for all the science news you bring to DU. I've been a hatrack fan for years.