Thwaites Glacier: Antarctica’s wild card
Nearly 100 scientists and staff from around the world, including CIRES scientist Ted Scambos, departed last month to conduct fieldwork in one of the most remote and inhospitable areas on Earth: Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica. Their aim? To investigate how and when climate change might affect the glacier, including a possible runaway collapse, which would raise global sea levels by up to two feet over the next century and put coastal cities and communities around the world at risk.
“We have been studying this area for many years, but mostly through satellites because it is so difficult to get to,” said Scambos, lead American scientific coordinator for the mission. “This is the biggest effort by far where we’ve actually placed scientists on the ground to study Thwaites Glacier.”