Page 12 - aruba-today-20220203

A12 science
Thursday 3 February 2022

Giant iceberg blocks scientists' study of

'Doomsday Glacier'

Couldn't do it. So we're
next to it."
Thwaites is spawning more
icebergs as it's falling apart,
Holland said. This iceberg
used to be the tongue or
leading edge of Thwaites
until it broke off about 20
years ago, Larter said. It
measures about 43 miles
by 28 miles (70 kilometers
by 44 kilometers), almost
the size of Rhode Island,
This photo provided by environmental scientist David Holland according to the National
shows equipment set up on the Dotson Ice Shelf in Antarctica Snow and Ice Data Center.
on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022. Much of the problem is
Associated Press that loads of sea ice have
gravitated around the
By SETH BORENSTEIN vironmental scientist Da- huge iceberg. And that's
AP Science Writer vid Holland, who planned ironic — and troublesome
Antarctica's so-called to drill deep through the for researchers — because
Doomsday Glacier, nick- Thwaites ice shelf to mea- overall Antarctic sea ice is
named because it is huge sure the water's warmth unusually low for this time of
and coming apart, is most- below it, is achingly close year, Larter said.
ly thwarting an internation- but not quite there. While parts of Thwaites'
al effort to figure out how Improvising, Holland de- edges have fast-spread-
dangerously vulnerable it camped at the nearby ing cracks like a car wind-
is. Dotson ice shelf to do his shield, safety mountaineers
A large iceberg broke off research where no human inspected where research-
the deteriorating Thwaites had been before. He's hop- ers set up camp on Dotson,
glacier and, along with ing that along that blinding and Holland isn't worried
sea ice, it is blocking two white ice and its rugged much about danger. As
research ships with dozens frozen cliffs he can learn he spoke, a red helicopter
of scientists from examining about the unseen warm landed to evacuate one of
how fast its crucial ice shelf ocean water nibbling his eight-member team the
is falling apart. away at both Dotson and ship because of a sprained
Scientists from around the Thwaites from below. The ankle, which Holland said
world are part of a multi- smaller Dotson ice shelf is isn't too serious.
year $50 million interna- about 87 miles (140 kilome- The key to the future of
tional effort to study the ters) west of the Thwaites Thwaites is the ice shelf and
Florida-sized glacier by ice shelf. its tongue. These edges
land, sea and below for the The ice shelf "is the most with warm water under-
brief time the remote ice is important part of Thwaites neath border the ocean
reachable during the Ant- and it's protecting itself and and provide "back support"
arctic summer. hiding from us," Holland that holds the rest of the
Plans to examine the gla- said in a first video interview glacier in place, prevent-
cier's crucial ice shelf from the Dotson ice shelf. ing it from falling into the
haven't been stopped but He called Dotson's ice shelf sea, Holland said.
are sidetracked a bit, offi- "this beautiful white desert- What worries scientists is
cials said. like landscape, brilliantly that leading edge of the
This was the last of three white actually. And it will all huge glacier is break-
international scientific ex- be gone and replaced by ing apart in many places.
peditions aimed at the vul- the Pacific Ocean in due Even though total collapse
nerable ice shelf, said British course." of the glacier could take
Antarctic Survey geophysi- "Nobody can get to hundreds or thousands of
cist Rob Larter, chief scien- Thwaites this year," Hol- years, the edge is falling
tist of the first research mis- land told The Associated apart much sooner. And if
sion. Press Monday. "We tried to that goes, researchers fear
New York University en- cut through it for a week. nothing may stop the rest
from doing the same.
"I think the ice shelf will be
gone in a matter of years
to decades," Holland said
via Zoom on a computer
set up on an outdoor table
in the 24-hour sun, where
the morning temperature
was -4 (-20 Celsius). "But the
actual inland ice, that's the
really unknown question."q