Alarming new scientific research has uncovered a previously underestimated threat to Antarctica's ice: violent underwater 'storms' that are aggressively melting the continent's most vulnerable glaciers from below.
The Hidden Threat Beneath the Ice
According to a groundbreaking study published in Nature Geosciences, these swirling vortexes form in the open ocean when waters of different temperatures and densities collide, creating turbulent motions that resemble hurricanes occurring beneath the surface. The research, led by study author Mattia Poinelli at the University of California, Irvine, reveals these powerful currents regularly travel towards Antarctica where they target the Thwaites Glacier – nicknamed the Doomsday Glacier – and the nearby Pine Island Glacier.
Dr Poinelli described these underwater phenomena as being 'strongly energetic' and noted they 'look exactly like a storm'. 'There is a very vertical and turbulent motion that happens near the surface,' he told climate organisation Grist.
How the Underwater Storms Accelerate Melting
The experts found evidence of these storm-like circulation patterns beneath Antarctic ice shelves using realistic computer simulations and high-resolution observations from moored devices. These swirling ocean currents, classified as 'submesoscale' features measuring between 1 and 10 kilometres across, form in the open ocean before propagating toward vulnerable glaciers.
The mechanism represents a dangerous feedback loop: the storms draw up deeper, warmer water from the ocean's depths into cavities beneath the ice while pushing away colder freshwater. This process generates more ocean turbulence, which in turn causes yet more ice shelf melting. According to the research, this process is 'ubiquitous year-round', occurring regardless of season, though the team noted elevated activity in June.
These underwater storms account for as much as 20 per cent of total melting beneath the sea surface in the region, a finding with major implications for global sea level rise projections that could be drastically underestimated without accounting for this phenomenon.
Global Implications and Future Projections
The Thwaites Glacier currently measures approximately 192,000 square kilometres – roughly the size of Great Britain – and is up to 4,000 metres thick. Its collapse alone would cause global sea levels to rise between one and two metres, with the potential for more than twice that increase if the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet follows.
Dr Poinelli emphasised the significance of these findings: 'In the same way hurricanes and other large storms threaten vulnerable coastal regions around the world, submesoscale features in the open ocean propagate toward ice shelves to cause substantial damage. They cause warm water to intrude into cavities beneath the ice, melting them from below.'
The research team warns that as climate warming continues, these underwater storm events will become increasingly frequent. 'In the future, where there is going to be more warm water, more melting, we're going to probably see more of these effects in different areas of Antarctica,' Dr Poinelli stated.
The study underscores the urgent necessity to incorporate these short-term, weather-like processes into climate models to create more comprehensive and accurate projections of sea level rise, which could have devastating consequences for coastal communities worldwide.
