The ‘Doomsday Glacier‘ and What It’s Future Holds

Scientists don’t really like the scary nickname journalists have given the glacier where the current Antarctic expedition is headed: the “Doomsday Glacier.”

Yes, the Thwaites Glacier is the size of Florida, and if it melted completely, it would add 2 feet to global sea-level rise. Researchers aboard the icebreaker Araon are planning to study the ice of Thwaites and the seas around it to figure out how soon the glacier might collapse.

But Thwaites isn’t doomed to collapse,scientists say.They emphasize that if we cut the carbon emissions driving climate change, we might still protect the glacier.

However, nations aren’t on track to do that. Globally, fossil fuel emissions soared to record levels in 2025 and aren’t showing signs of declining. One recent study found it might already be too late to prevent the ice shelves in this part of the Antarctic coast from melting to some degree.

Other researchers say that while Thwaites is unlikely to collapse completely in the next few decades, they now have a clearer idea of what could cause it to unravel later this century or beyond.

to understand these predictions,it helps to know a bit about the glacier’s shape.

Like all glaciers, Thwaites is made of solid ice, but as gravity pulls it toward sea level, it moves like a thick, heavy liquid (think molasses). Thwaites’ ice starts on the land of Antarctica but flows so far out to sea that the edge of the glacier extends past the bedrock, becoming a tongue of ice that floats on the waves.

Now,warm ocean currents are washing up against the underside of this floating ice,causing it to melt and thin. These currents are also eroding the base of the ice, or the part of the glacier that sits on bedrock.This causes the location of Thwaites’ base – what scientists call its grounding line – to retreat farther inland. Scientists fear this retreat will continue until the glacier…