Researchers at the University of California in the United States collaborated with NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the study. Here\u2019s what we know about the findings:<\/p>\n
![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/AP22033621809362-1792155136.jpg\")
This 2022 satellite image from the European Space Agency, annotated by marine geophysicist Robert Larter, shows the positions of research vessels RVIB Nathaniel B Palmer and the RV Araon on ice shelf areas extending from Thwaites glacier in Antarctica. \u2018EIS\u2019 indicates the Eastern Ice Shelf, where research was conducted in 2020, and which recently published studies have suggested is likely to break up sometime within the next two decades [File: Robert Larter\/British Antarctic Survey, ESA via AP]What is Thwaites and why is it important?<\/p>\n
Nicknamed the \u201cDoomsday Glacier\u201d, Thwaites is the largest glacier on Earth, spanning an area of around 192,000sq km (74,130sq miles) or roughly the size of Senegal \u2013 and larger than the US state of Florida.<\/p>\n
It is located on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land in remote western Antarctica and forms part of the great West Antarctic ice sheet, which includes other glaciers and is 14 times the size of Thwaites.<\/p>\n
The glacier was first mapped in 1947 and is named after the late American glaciologist Fredrik T Thwaites, although he never visited it.<\/p>\n
In the 1980s, scientists discovered that Thwaites is melting rapidly and have closely monitored its melting process as concerns have grown ever since.<\/p>\n
Because it is so big, the glacier\u2019s collapse would sharply raise global sea levels by a catastrophic amount \u2013 although researchers don\u2019t project that will happen for many decades, or even a few centuries.<\/p>\n
Together, Thwaites and other glaciers such as the Pine Island glacier \u2013 an ice stream in West Antarctica which flows into Pine Island Bay in the Amundsen Sea \u2013 act as a barrier that holds back the vast and vulnerable West Antarctic ice sheet. If melted, the ice sheet could cause many coastal cities to be submerged around the world.<\/p>\n
At present, ice loss from Thwaites contributes around four percent of all global sea-level rise. Studies have calculated that the glacier has lost more than 1,000 billion tonnes of ice since 2000, and continues to lose 50 billion tonnes of ice per year.<\/p>\n
Why is the glacier melting?<\/p>\n
The main drivers are warm ocean water which is actively melting the Thwaites glacier from underneath it, according to several studies.<\/p>\n
Ocean warming is caused by human-induced climate change, in particular from the burning of polluting fossil fuels.<\/p>\n
In a 2019 study, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory discovered a giant underwater cavity beneath the Thwaites glacier that spread across an area two-thirds the size of Manhattan, which researchers said was likely speeding up the glacier\u2019s thinning.<\/p>\n
Rising temperatures have caused glaciers to lose about five percent of their ice since 2000, according to the European Space Agency.<\/p>\n
What has the latest research found?<\/p>\n
Thwaites could add as much as 1.2 inches (30mm) \u2013 double the current estimates \u2013 to sea levels by 2100, even without any additional global warming, the study found.<\/p>\n
The researchers said they used new computer models that paint a clearer picture of melting activity under the threatened glacier at its grounding line \u2013 the boundary where it transitions from resting entirely on bedrock to spreading out over the sea in the form of ice shelves.<\/p>\n
Where other ice sheet models conclude a grounding line is fixed, the scientists said they developed the concept of a broader \u201cgrounding zone\u201d instead. In this scenario, seawater lifts and lowers the ice in a \u201ctidal pumping\u201d process that allows warm water to reach \u201cdeep underneath the ice sheets and causing vigorous melting,\u201d lead author Mattia Poinelli, a project scientist at UCLA, told media.<\/p>\n
That melting process is accelerating the Thwaites\u2019 \u201cunpinning\u201d from the Mouginot Ridge \u2013 an important underwater bedrock currently stabilising the glacier from below. The study concluded that there is a 60 percent chance that Thwaites could unpin from the ridge by the end of the century.<\/p>\n
However, experts say more studies are needed to accurately predict the volume of Thwaites\u2019 ice loss.<\/p>\n
In separate findings, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey concluded that Thwaites will continue losing ice for at least the next 150 years, even under the most extreme ocean cooling conditions imaginable.<\/p>\n
The study, which used computer simulation models that examined the melting effects of the ocean over the next century and a half, was published in Geophysical Research Letters in July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The world\u2019s largest glacier is melting much faster and could add twice as much to global sea levels…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":805501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2203,7080,6445,1397,936,59,50,108814,90,3023,5699,56,54,55,1068],"class_list":["post-805500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-antarctica","tag-climate","tag-climate-crisis","tag-environment","tag-explainer","tag-gb","tag-news","tag-news-analysis","tag-science","tag-science-and-technology","tag-sustainability","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}