NASA scientists have discovered a gigantic cavity, almost 300 meters tall, growing at the bottom of the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica.
Cavity indicates rapid decay of the ice sheet and acceleration in global sea levels due to climate change.
The cavity was revealed by ice-penetrating radar in NASA’s Operation IceBridge, an airborne campaign beginning in 2010 that studies connections between the polar regions and the global climate.
Thwaites Glacier is currently responsible for about 4% of global sea level rise.
The treaty was signed in December 1987 by US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.
It prohibited the United States and the Soviet Union from possessing, testing and deploying ground-launched cruise and ballistic missiles of ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers.
It also covered all land-based missiles, including those carrying nuclear warheads but did not cover sea-launched missiles.
The objective of this treaty was to end the arms race between the two superpowers US and USSR.
