"The study warns that the world's most dangerous glacier could result in catastrophic sea level rise."

According to a new study, a West Antarctic glacier, nicknamed "the world's most dangerous", could completely melt and cause a rapid and "catastrophic" rise in sea level.

The study, published in the scientific journal PNAS, indicates that the Thwaites Glacier is at a proverbial "tipping point" that could cause an uninterrupted flow of ice in the world's oceans.

"If you trigger this instability, you do not need to continue forcing the ice cover by raising the temperature. That will continue, and that's the worry, "said Alex Robel, lead author of the study and a professor at Georgia Tech, in a statement. "Climatic variations will always be important after this tipping point, as they will determine the speed at which the ice will move."

TROU OMINOUS ALMOST MANHATTAN'S SIZE DISCOVERED UNDER ANTARCTIC GLACIER

NASA JPL scientist Helene Seroussi, who worked on the study with Robel, said the glacier could lose all its ice over the next 150 years. "That would make sea level rise of about half a meter (1.64 feet)," Seroussi said in his statement.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, sea level "continues to rise at a rate of about one-eighth of an inch a year."

According to the summary of the study, the Thwaites Glacier is "the greatest source of uncertainty in projections of future sea level rise". If it were to collapse, this would make more likely "the worst scenarios of rapid sea level rise in future projections", "adds the summary.

"If you trigger this instability, you do not need to continue forcing the ice cover by raising the temperature. This will continue on its own, and that's the concern. "

– Alex Robel, Georgia Tech professor

The Antarctic ice cap has more than 50 times the amount of ice that the world's mountain glaciers combined and eight times more ice in the Greenland icecap, added Robel in his statement.

If and when the glacier becomes unstable, the after-effects would be considered "catastrophic".

"Once [the] The ice is over the line of grounding and only above the water, it contributes to the sea level because the buoyancy holds it back more than it used to be, "said Robel. "The ice pours on the floating ice floe and melts or breaks into an iceberg."

The ground line is the line separating the point where the ice layer rests on the bottom of the sea and where it extends over the water.

As is common in most sea level studies, the time scale of this study was in centuries and simulations showed that ice loss from the Thwaites Glacier had begun after 600 years. However, the researchers warned that if ocean temperatures continue to rise, the instability of the glacier could occur much faster than expected.

UN REPORT INDICATES APARTHEID "CLIMATE" WILL SHARE EARTH BETWEEN "THOSE WHO ESCAPE" AND "THOSE THAT WILL SUFFER"

"It could happen in the next 200 to 600 years. It depends on the topography of the bedrock under the ice, and we do not know it in detail yet, "added Seroussi.

Earlier this year, NASA scientists discovered a huge hole, two-thirds the size of Manhattan, under the Thwaites Glacier, a fact that disrupted them.

According to NASA, the huge cavity – which is about 1,000 feet tall, about the height of the New York Chrysler Building – is growing at the bottom of the glacier and is large enough to have contained 14 billion tonnes of ice. Most of this ice cream has melted in the past three years.

Christopher Carbone of Fox News contributed to this story.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP