Giant 'sandbanks' on the sea floor may be able to help protect glaciers from the effects of global warming.

If they work as planned, these large walls could make glaciers last as much as 10 times longer than they otherwise would, researchers say.

Simulations found they may even be able to recover from existing damage relatively quickly.

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The Thwaites glacier (pictured) is one of two fast-moving glaciers at the Western edge of the Antarctic ice sheet. Research has shown that the glacier is sliding unstoppably into the ocean, mainly due to warmer seawater lapping at its underside - but a new plan could help

Michael Wolovick, a glaciology postdoc at Princeton University, first presented his work in December at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December, and carried out simulations on the Thwaites glacier.

'In some experiments for Thwaites Glacier the grounding line is able to recover from a severely retreated state over 100 km behind its present-day position,' he wrote.

'Such a dramatic recovery demonstrates that it is possible, at least in principle, to stop and reverse an ongoing marine ice sheet collapse.

HOW THE 'SANDBAGS'COULD SAVE GLACIERS The sandbags are described as 'like a big pile of sand or other loose aggregate, with an outer layer of boulders to protect against tides.' They would block warm water from reaching the bottom of the glacier, a major problem. Although the surface of the ocean is cold, underneath there is denser, warmer water. The 'sandbags', which researchers call artificial sills, would block warm water from reaching the bottom of the glacier. When this warm water reaches the glacier, it sloshes around at the base of the glacier’s “grounding line,” which is what scientists call the place where the glacier’s icy front wall is exposed to the sea. This erodes and melts the exposed ice face at the grounding line. Glacier ice then becomes ocean water, causing sea levels to rise and the glacier to recede. Advertisement

'If the ice shelf regrounds on the artificial sill itself, erosion of the sill beneath the grounded ice could reduce the effectiveness of the intervention.

'However, experiments including sill erosion suggest that even a very weak sill could delay a collapse for centuries.'

He says the sandbanks, which he calls artificial sills, would block warm water from reaching the bottom of the glacier.

Although the Amundsen Sea region is only a fraction of the whole West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the region contains enough ice to raise global sea levels by 4 feet (1.2 meters).

'I propose blocking warm water transport through these choke points with an artificial sill.

“Part of the reason I’m putting this forward is it might be better to have a more targeted intervention, Wolovick told The Atlantic.

He said his scheme was surprisingly low tech.

“It’s nothing particularly technologically advanced,” he said.

“I’m imagining something like a big pile of sand or other loose aggregate, and maybe an outer layer of boulders to protect against tides.”