Antarctic Glacier Mapping Reveals Surprising Results.

Scientists, including a glaciologist from Swansea University, have mapped the ground beneath Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier for the first time, revealing a scarcity of sedimentary rock that may influence the glacier's movement into the ocean in the coming decades. The glacier is one of the fastest-changing ice-ocean systems in Antarctica and its retreat could raise global sea levels by over half a meter within centuries. The new analysis is based on airborne surveys using radar and sensors that can map minute variations in gravity and magnetism thousands of meters below the ground and seabed on which the glacier rests.