Antarctica’s ‘doomsday’ glacier will keep melting even if oceans cool

Check your subscription status, update your details and more. Antarctica’s ‘doomsday’ glacier will keep melting even if oceans cool Computer models suggest that unrealistically cold oceans would be insufficient to stop Thwaites glacier retreating, although a neighbouring glacier might begin to grow The world’s widest glacier – Thwaites glacier in Antarctica – is already collapsing at an alarming rate due to ocean warming, with worrying implications for global sea-level rise. Now, a new study shows that it will continue to lose ice for at least the next 150 years, even under the impossible scenario of extremely cool oceans.

This means that future ice loss from the glacier is unavoidable, even under the most optimistic climate mitigation scenarios. Dubbed the “doomsday glacier”, this vast mass of ice is roughly the size of Great Britain or the state of Florida. Together with the neighbouring Pine Island Glacier, it’s the area of Antarctica losing the most ice, mainly due to melting by the warmer ocean waters.

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