Antarctica's 'Doomsday Glacier' Is Melting Faster Than Expected

Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica is losing mass rapidly because warm seawater is pushing underneath it and melting its core, according to new research.

The work was carried out by researchers at the University of California with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and published in the journal Nature Communications. It predicts Thwaites alone could add 1.2 inches (30mm) to sea levels even if global warming does not accelerate as predicted. Al Jazeera

Scientists reported on October 15, 2026, that the glacier is melting more aggressively than previously projected, with implications for global sea-level rise. CNN

Thwaites is nicknamed the "Doomsday Glacier." It is the largest glacier on Earth, covering around 192,000 sq km (74,130 sq miles). That is roughly the size of Senegal and larger than the U.S. state of Florida.

It sits on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land in western Antarctica. It forms part of the West Antarctic ice sheet, a body of ice 14 times the size of Thwaites itself.

The loss so far is large. Thwaites has lost more than 1,000 billion tonnes of ice since 2000 and continues to lose about 50 billion tonnes per year. That ice loss currently contributes around 4% of global sea-level rise.

The glacier has been retreating for more than 80 years, and that retreat has accelerated considerably over the past 30 years. British Antarctic Survey

Thwaites was first mapped in 1947 and named for American glaciologist Fredrik T. Thwaites, who never visited it. Scientists discovered in the 1980s that it was melting rapidly.

Earlier research has warned that melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet will continue to speed up even under lower warming. Even with global temperature rise held to 1.5 degrees Celsius, melting would increase three times faster than during the 20th century. British Antarctic Survey