Global Warming

Antarctica’s Largest Glacier Is Slowly  Approaching Its Demise

The days of Antarctica’s Pine Island glacier are numbered, but no one really knows what that number is. New models could help to shed some much-needed light on the matter.

In the past four decades, this slow-moving monstrosity of ice has contributed more to sea level rise than any other glacier on Earth, and recently, scientists have noticed signs it might be accelerating and thinning unusually fast.

Using high-resolution satellite observations from the European Space Agency (ESA), researchers at the University of Bristol have tracked the ebbs and flows of Antarctica’s largest glacier

In short, the data suggests the Pine Island glacier is going to lose mass, but not any faster than it already is. Under present-day thinning rates, the glacier has retreated by 20 kilometres in 50 years, and this, according to the authors, is ‘negligible’ compared to more extreme estimates and although the glacier will continue to lose mass, it will do so at present rates and not any faster – which essentially is some good news.

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