A bold, large-scale project to delay devastating sea level rise
Three meters of global sea level rise is being held at bay by barely stable, rapidly thinning ice sheets that hang into ocean waters. Can a 80 km long, 150 meters high curtain anchored on the seabed at 650 meters depth in front of Thwaites glacier change that? We will find out!
The Seabed Curtain Project
The Seabed Anchored Curtain project will limit sea level rise by creating barriers that would protect ice sheets from warm ocean waters that flow beneath the fringing ice shelves. Spurred by the impending collapse of Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier, this strategy will limit the access of warm water to the most vulnerable parts of ice sheets. This could be possible as the warm, dense, bottom waters are within relatively narrow channels in the continental shelf.
West Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier, also known as the Doomsday Glacier, is the widest glacier on Earth at 120 km and roughly the size of Great Britain or Florida, US. Thwaites glaciers is one of the Global Tipping Points at risk of melt and collapse due to warming ocean temperatures. The current ice loss contributes to around 4 % of all global sea level rise. If it were to collapse sea levels would increase by 65 cm, causing devastating global impacts on people, marine ecosystems and coastlines. Reducing warming by greenhouse gas reductions or solar radiation management will not be enough to stabilize ice sheets.
Project funders
Thomas Wilhelmsen
Chair of Tom Wilhelmsen’s Foundation
“We are proud to support the Seabed Curtain project, a groundbreaking initiative in climate research and ocean preservation in the Arctic. The project’s innovative approach to reducing ice melting in the Arctic Ocean through technology and collaboration across disciplines, strongly aligns with the foundation’s values of sustainability, knowledge, and international cooperation. We believe this project has the potential to make a meaningful contribution to the global climate effort and help protect vulnerable ecosystems in the northern regions.”
“Sea level rise is one of the most serious climate risks facing humanity this century. It is essential to accelerate research, like UArctic’s seabed anchor curtains project, to evaluate how to safely manage this risk.”
Sasha Post
Director of Outlier Projects
