Found in Antarctica “antimale”
Geophysics found that the Dotson glacier on the lower side becomes thinner. If the current pace continues, this area will divide the glacier in 40-50 years, which could significantly accelerate its further destruction, which, according to current estimates, more than 200 years. An article with the results published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Ice shelf Dotson is a continuation of the glaciers Koehler and Smith size 40 by 70 kilometers. Descending from the West coast part of the glacier unite, and fall into the Amundsen sea. Ice shelf plays the role of a backup, slowing the movement of ice from the surface of the sea.
In the new work, scientists are using satellites Cryosat and Sentinel-1 the European space Agency investigated the behavior of ice in this area. Data collected from 2010 to 2016, the scientists found that the surface of the ice shelf is lowered at a speed of 26 centimeters per year, which should correspond to the reduction of the thickness of the entire glacier (400 meters) by 2.5 meters per year. High-precision altimeter aboard the Cryosat satellite showed that the more the thickness decreases along the strip width of 5 kilometers and a length of 60, which starts from the point where the glacier begins to float to the very end in the sea.
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Scientists were able to show that a significant change to the top upside down the gorge from the bottom of the glacier with a width of 10-15 km, which cuts into the ice in some places up to 200 meters. The team argues that everything points to the fact that the warm water from the depths of the ocean falls under the ice shelf and hastening its melting.
We say that it is warm: its temperature of 0.6−0.7 degrees. She moves to a cavity under the glacier along the trough to the lines of the following, and then begins to rotate and climb. That’s where we see the thinning and melting of osnovannoe Gorolevici the author of the work from the University of Edinburgh