News Climate

Rapid melting is eroding vulnerable cracks in Thwaites Glacier’s underbelly

Scientists have now explored a hard-to-reach ocean cavity under a crucial glacier in Antarctica

A photo of a researchers camp on Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier.

Researchers camping on Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier melted a hole through more than 500 meters of ice to investigate the narrow cavity of seawater that is melting what’s known as the glacier’s grounding zone, where the ice lifts off the seafloor and starts to float.

P. Davis/BAS

By Douglas Fox

Antarctica’s most vulnerable climate hot spot is a remote and hostile place — a narrow sliver of seawater, beneath a slab of floating ice more than half a kilometer thick.