[TheGuardian] The redistribution of water has caused the planet to lean and wobble, resulting in the poles moving.
Global Warming: The Glacier Of Greatest Concern - Thwaites Glacier – Present
[AntacticSun.usap] Thwaites Glacier is melting fast because of climate change, causing sea levels to rise the world over. Of all the world's glaciers, it's the one that scientists are most worried that a catastrophic collapse could happen quickly and affect coastal regions everywhere.
"It's not ’If sea level is going to go up,' it's ’When and how much,'" said Erin Pettit of Oregon State University. "The Thwaites project is focused specifically on the sea level rise question and trying to narrow down that."
Thwaites Glacier is a mass of ice the size of Florida along the coast of West Antarctica. It's gradually flowing into the ocean, and since the 1970s, scientists have watched as its pace is speeding up, adding more grounded ice into the ocean each year.
"There's a very intimate connection between sea level and glacier volume," said Sridhar Anandakrishnan of Pennsylvania State University. "These two exchange water continuously, water goes from the ocean to the ice sheet and from the ice sheet back to the ocean... If that exchange is unequal, and in this case if more water leaves the glacier and goes into the ocean, than comes back from the ocean to the glacier, then sea level rises."
That sea level rise isn't confined to remote areas of the globe, but spreads out and affects every coastline in the world. So far the glacier has only contributed a few millimeters of sea level rise, but scientists worry that if the whole West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapses, it could rise significantly more.
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