All articles tagged with #thwaites glacier
Three new studies and accessible explainers suggest Thwaites Glacier is melting faster than previously thought: an under-ice collapse could begin within a year, with the glacier potentially speeding toward the sea over decades to a century; visuals explain tides, warming waters, and feedbacks, with Marine Ice Sheet Instability favored, underscoring scientists’ call for drastic carbon reductions to mitigate future impacts.
A June heatwave across parts of Antarctica pushed temperatures about 20C above normal, with Trinity Peninsula recording 15.4C (59.7F) and surface melting observed on glaciers like Collins. While a single extreme event won’t melt Antarctica, it underscores how warming—driven by stronger westerlies—could accelerate ice loss. Long-term monitoring of the Thwaites glacier remains incomplete, but new measurements hint at warmer waters beneath and rising melt. A study from Victoria University of Wellington projects melt could rise up to tenfold by 2100 under 3.5–4C warming, strengthening calls for aggressive carbon-emission cuts to curb sea-level rise risk.
Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier, nearly the size of Britain, could collapse sooner than expected, potentially adding about three metres to global sea levels and flooding coastlines worldwide. The glacier’s last ice shelf is poised to disintegrate as subsurface warming weakens the ice, putting the Netherlands, Bangladesh, the Maldives and other island nations at high risk. In the United States, major coastal cities like Miami, New York and New Orleans could face significant inundation, with projections that up to 60% of Miami-Dade County could be underwater.
Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier, nicknamed the Doomsday Glacier, is poised to lose its eastern ice shelf this year, removing a key stabilizing buttress and likely accelerating ice loss. A full collapse could lift global sea levels by about 26 inches (65 cm), intensifying coastal flooding even if emissions drop, and potentially triggering further instability in West Antarctica. The melt is driven by warm deep ocean water entering the region and changes in Southern Ocean winds, a process linked to human-caused climate change. While models vary on exact timing, scientists agree the glacier’s retreat will have long-term, wide-reaching consequences for sea level rise.
Antarctica’s West Antarctic “Doomsday Glacier,” Thwaites, is poised to lose its eastern ice shelf—an essential buttress that slows ice flow—potentially within 2026. Satellite data indicate the shelf’s detachment would accelerate ice loss and could contribute about 2 feet (65 cm) of global sea‑level rise if Thwaites collapses, with a full West Antarctic collapse threatening roughly 10.8 feet (3.3 m). The melt is driven by warm ocean water beneath the ice and winds linked to climate change, and scientists with the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration are actively monitoring the process.
A 45-kilometer ice shelf in front of Antarctica's Thwaites glacier is actively cracking and breaking away, a development scientists describe as a potential tipping point that could unleash a rapid collapse of part of West Antarctica and raise global sea levels by roughly 13 to 16 feet; researchers noted unusually warm, fast-moving waters beneath the ice and attempted to monitor the collapse, signaling heightened risk to coastal regions worldwide.
A pioneering autonomous submarine, Ran, vanished beneath Antarctic ice in January 2024 after mapping under Thwaites and other shelves. Its successor, Ran II, funded by the Voice of the Ocean Foundation and insurance, is due in winter 2026/2027 and will feature improved navigation and decision-making to continue exploring the hidden underside of ice shelves. Ran’s missions revealed a complex, dunes‑like ice base and nonuniform melting driven by ocean currents, prompting updated models of ice loss and sea‑level rise. The program will also support Baltic Sea research through a Gothenburg–VOTO partnership, leveraging AI and next‑gen AUVs for faster analysis of vast data sets.
An international team used a 20-foot autonomous underwater vehicle named Ran to map the underside of the Dotson Ice Shelf in West Antarctica, revealing complex melt patterns that differ between the western and eastern portions and are influenced by underwater currents; Ran disappeared on a 2024 mission after collecting data, likely due to running aground or being lost to wildlife, prompting plans to replace it and continue this important research, with findings published in Science Advances.
Scientists warn that Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier could collapse, lifting global sea levels by about two feet over decades and threatening tens of millions in low-lying coastal areas. A New York Times analysis maps at-risk cities—especially in Asia—while noting that Thwaites acts as a plug for nearby ice on land, meaning its loss could unleash a broader rise. Defending cities would be costly, and policy choices and climate research funding will shape how communities prepare for the coming surge.
Scientists warn that Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier could lose about 200 gigatonnes of ice per year by 2067, potentially adding around 0.5 mm to global sea‑level rise annually and accelerating toward collapse. The findings, based on satellite‑calibrated ice‑sheet models, show that melting is five times faster than in the 1990s and concentrates in deep bedrock valleys inland. While a total collapse isn’t considered imminent, the study suggests a rapid retreat could occur within a couple of centuries under current emissions, with significant delay possible if greenhouse gas emissions are cut.
Scientists drilling into Thwaites Glacier with a hot-water borehole faced their instruments getting stuck about three-quarters of the way down and had to abandon the deployment, but the data recovered reveal warm, turbulent waters beneath the ice driving sub-ice melt. The findings improve understanding of the glacier’s instability, and researchers plan to return to continue studying it, given its potential to raise global sea levels by about 65 cm if it destabilizes.
Researchers from BAS and KOPRI partially lowered instruments under Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier to study warm, subglacial waters; the mooring got stuck as the borehole refroze and time/weather forced an abandonment, but the team still obtained valuable measurements to inform future efforts.
British and South Korean scientists’ ambitious drill under Thwaites Glacier collapsed at the final step when the borehole refroze and entombed the instruments, forcing an abrupt end to a mission intended to install long‑term tidal‑water sensors. Earlier attempts did yield some preliminary measurements from beneath the glacier, revealing warm, turbulent waters that fuel its melt, but time and bad conditions prevented deployment of the moored instruments and completion of the study.
British and South Korean researchers camping on Thwaites Glacier aimed to begin a multi-day drill to lower instruments through half-mile ice into the ocean below, to study how bottom-up melting drives sea-level rise; fierce winds and heavy snow threaten equipment and could delay a mission that follows an eight-week voyage of the icebreaker Araon.
Weather delays finally allowed scientists to set up a field camp on Antarctica's fast-melting Thwaites Glacier. Over the coming weeks they will bore about half a mile into the ice to deploy instruments in the warming ocean beneath, seeking to understand how seawater is eroding the glacier and what its collapse could mean for global sea levels. The temporary camp includes ten single-occupancy tents, a science tent and two toilet tents after helicopter landings were previously blocked by clouds.