Rate of Mass Loss Across the Instability Threshold for Thwaites Glacier Determines Rate of Mass Loss for Entire Basin

• Main Authors: Waibel, MS, Hulbe, CL, Jackson, CS, Martin, DF
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: eScholarship, University of California 2018
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience; Climate Action; Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences; Thwaites Glacier; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0s75n929

Rapid change now underway on Thwaites Glacier (TG) raises concern that a threshold for unstoppable grounding line retreat has been or is about to be crossed. We use a high-resolution ice sheet model to examine the mechanics of TG self-sustained retreat by nudging the grounding line just past the poi...