A gigantic cavity two-thirds the area of Manhattan and almost 1,000 feet (300 meters) tall has been found growing at the bottom of Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica.
About the size of Florida, Thwaites Glacier is currently responsible for approximately 4 percent of global sea level rise.
It holds enough ice to raise the world ocean a little over 2 feet (65 centimeters) and backstops neighboring glaciers that would raise sea levels an additional 8 feet (2.4 meters) if all the ice were lost.
The giant cavity is just one of several disturbing discoveries reported in a new NASA-led study of the disintegrating glacier.
Researchers expected to find some gaps between ice and bedrock at Thwaites' bottom where ocean water could flow in and melt the glacier from below.
However, the size and 'explosive growth rate' of the newfound hole surprised them.
The collapse of the Thwaites Glacier would cause an increase of global sea level of between one and two metres (three and six feet), with the potential for more than twice that from the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet
Read more at: Fears rise 'world's most dangerous glacier' could soon collapse | Daily Mail Onlin
About the size of Florida, Thwaites Glacier is currently responsible for approximately 4 percent of global sea level rise.
It holds enough ice to raise the world ocean a little over 2 feet (65 centimeters) and backstops neighboring glaciers that would raise sea levels an additional 8 feet (2.4 meters) if all the ice were lost.
The giant cavity is just one of several disturbing discoveries reported in a new NASA-led study of the disintegrating glacier.
Researchers expected to find some gaps between ice and bedrock at Thwaites' bottom where ocean water could flow in and melt the glacier from below.
However, the size and 'explosive growth rate' of the newfound hole surprised them.
The collapse of the Thwaites Glacier would cause an increase of global sea level of between one and two metres (three and six feet), with the potential for more than twice that from the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet
Read more at: Fears rise 'world's most dangerous glacier' could soon collapse | Daily Mail Onlin
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