00:00Ice piracy is like Pirates of the Caribbean, but you gotta swap those tropical seas for
00:06icy freezing waters.
00:08And the captain here isn't Jack Sparrow, but a massive glacier in Antarctica.
00:13Meet the Kohler East Glacier.
00:15Its calm, sparkling surface might look innocent, but don't be mistaken, it is a pirate.
00:21And a pretty skilled one, too.
00:23Instead of gold, it's been stealing ice from its neighbors at record speed.
00:28And scientists can't believe what they're seeing.
00:30So what exactly is ice piracy?
00:34This is a strange kind of glacier movement, where one glacier starts taking ice from another
00:39nearby.
00:41Instead of minding its own business and slowly sliding toward the sea, it suddenly changes
00:46course and begins pulling ice that used to belong to its neighbor.
00:50The pirate glacier speeds up, the victim slows down.
00:55The problem is that the balance of ice in the region might get completely thrown off.
01:00This isn't brand new information, though.
01:02Scientists have known about this quirky behavior for quite a while.
01:06But they used to think that this process took hundreds, maybe even thousands of years.
01:11Now something really strange is happening in Antarctica.
01:14We're seeing, for the first time ever, a glacier pirate in action.
01:19And it's moving much, much faster than anyone expected.
01:23It all started when researchers from the University of Leeds began looking at satellite images taken
01:28between 2005 and 2022.
01:32They wanted to analyze the rates of flow from eight ice streams in West Antarctica.
01:38And yes, glaciers do move.
01:40Think of them as huge piles of snow that have turned into solid ice over time.
01:45This ice slowly changes shape, shifts, and moves.
01:49That's why glaciers are often called rivers of ice, because they flow, for real.
01:55Gravity is what makes it happen.
01:56The ice slowly slides and deforms under its own weight, thanks to the pull of gravity.
02:02And when it comes to glacial movements, they can either advance or retreat.
02:07If more snow and ice build up than melt away, break off, or evaporate, a glacier will advance.
02:13But if it loses more than it gains, it will retreat.
02:17Oh, and glaciers also move at different speeds, depending on things like the slope of the land
02:22beneath them.
02:23But if that flow starts speeding up, well, that's bad news for coastal communities all
02:28over the world.
02:29Because that means more ice is moving from land into the ocean, which contributes to Antarctic
02:34ice loss and, eventually, sea level rise.
02:38Now back to the recent ice research in Antarctica.
02:42The team calculated ice velocity using a tracking technique that measures how visible features,
02:47like cracks or rifts on the ice surface, shift over time.
02:52And they found that seven of those eight Antarctic glaciers had sped up.
02:56On average, they've doubled their speed since 2005.
03:00Given the impacts of how Antarctica's climate is changing, warming up more and more each
03:05year, this doesn't really come as a surprise.
03:08But here's something strange.
03:10One glacier, just one, slowed down.
03:13We're talking about the Kohler West Glacier.
03:16It slowed by about 10% over the study period.
03:20But how can a massive chunk of ice just hit the brakes, so to speak?
03:24To figure that out, researchers looked at its surroundings.
03:28And there it was.
03:29The culprit.
03:30The Kohler East Glacier.
03:32Experts think Kohler West slowed down because it's flowing toward its pirate neighbor, Captain
03:38Whitebeard.
03:39I mean Kohler East.
03:40That one's moving much faster.
03:42In fact, it's one of the fastest glaciers in the area.
03:46Its speed has been increasing by about 105 feet every year over the study period.
03:51Okay, that might sound slow, even for a tortoise.
03:54But for a glacier, that's disturbingly fast.
03:58Kohler East is the Usain Bolt of ice chunks, and that's not even the most impressive part.
04:03The strange thing is that it changed its flow direction.
04:07Instead of moving straight ahead like it used to, it's now turning towards its neighbor,
04:12Kohler West, and pulling ice from it.
04:15Scientists think this is happening because the ice at the point where the glacier meets the
04:19ocean is melting faster than before.
04:22That glacier melting makes the ice thinner, and as it thins, it changes the way the ice
04:27upstream flows.
04:29So now, instead of feeding both glaciers evenly, more of that ice is being funneled onto Kohler
04:34East.
04:35In short, Kohler East is speeding up and changing its course.
04:39So now it's pulling or stealing ice from its slower neighbor.
04:43And just like that, this mysterious glacier in Antarctica became a real ice pirate.
04:49Okay, this whole ice piracy thing isn't that weird.
04:52I mean, it's part of how glaciers normally behave.
04:55Slow, dramatic, and occasionally a little mischievous.
05:00What really blows scientists' minds is how fast it's happening.
05:04They used to think this was a super slow process, something that would take hundreds or even thousands
05:09of years.
05:10But this one is taking place in just 18 years.
05:15And this is a huge satellite discovery in Antarctica.
05:18I mean, scientists were only able to spot it thanks to the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission,
05:23a pair of European satellites that use radar to keep an eye on Earth's surface.
05:28They can track changes in ice, land, and ocean with incredible precision and coverage, making
05:33them perfect for studying how the polar regions are changing.
05:37Because here's the thing, keeping an eye on the coldest parts of our planet is becoming
05:42essential for our future.
05:44And this particular part of Antarctica, where both the Kohler West and East glaciers are located,
05:49is thinning faster than anywhere else.
05:52Its glaciers are retreating at record speed.
05:55The grounding line – I mean, the point where the glacier stops resting on land and starts
06:00floating on the sea – is moving backward.
06:02When that happens, the ice sheet slides into the ocean even faster.
06:07But scientists say glaciers aren't just melting – they're reshaping themselves in completely
06:12new ways.
06:13And that's exactly what's happening with the Kohler East glaciers.
06:17Seeing a pirate glacier in action firsthand has once again changed how scientists look
06:22at things.
06:23The new data on ice piracy shows something they've never seen before.
06:28And floating ice shelves are interacting in new and surprising ways.
06:33So more and more, experts need to rethink how these icy giants behave as the world warms
06:39up.
06:40And that's a big deal.
06:42Because they play a significant role in how fast sea levels rise this century.
06:46In fact, Antarctica's glaciers are one of the biggest reasons our oceans are swelling.
06:51The continent is losing about 135 billion tons of ice every year.
06:57That's like dumping tens of billions of Olympic-sized pools of water into the ocean annually.
07:03If all of its ice melted, sea levels would rise by about 190 feet.
07:08That kind of rise would flood much of Florida and huge areas of the Netherlands and Bangladesh,
07:13for example.
07:14Many small island nations would completely vanish beneath the waves.
07:18Now, you might be asking yourself, what's hiding beneath all of Antarctica's ice?
07:23Well, it might look flat from above.
07:25But underneath that mile-thick layer of ice lays a whole landscape of steep mountains and
07:31deep valleys, crossed by winding rivers.
07:34Those hidden rivers could play a crucial role in how the ice sheet reacts to all this unusual
07:39warmth.
07:41Scientists now predict that as Antarctica's ice sheet keeps melting and thinning over the next
07:46few decades, those subglacial rivers will grow, overflow, and shift into new paths.
07:52This could make some of the biggest glaciers near the coast start to break apart faster.
07:57And that would make sea levels rise more quickly.
08:00So that's why understanding these changing dynamics and glacier movement, like our icy pirate,
08:06is so important.
08:08Every new discovery helps scientists figure out what's really driving Antarctica's glaciers,
08:13and how they are responding to a warming world.
08:16The more we learn about these frozen giants, the better we can predict what might happen
08:21next, and how changes down in Antarctica could ripple across the entire planet.
08:27That's it for today!
08:27So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your
08:32friends!
08:33Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
08:36And get then your悪巨っ!
08:37I'll grab the mantle
08:52all the way!
08:53And you've got a straight line!
08:57I'm a retired camp!
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