Warm water melts weak spots on Antarctica's 'Doomsday Glacier', say scientists

Thwaites, which is roughly the size of Florida, represents more than half a meter (1.6 feet) of global sea level rise potential.

Scientists studying Antarctica's vast Thwaites Glacier - nicknamed the Doomsday Glacier - say warm water is seeping into its weak spots, worsening melting caused by rising temperatures, two papers published in Nature journal showed on Wednesday.

Thwaites, which is roughly the size of Florida, represents more than half a meter (1.6 feet) of global sea level rise potential, and could destabilise neighbouring glaciers that have the potential to cause a further three-meter (9.8-foot) rise.

As part of the International Thwaites Glacier collaboration - the biggest field campaign ever attempted in Antarctica - a team of 13 U.S. and British scientists spent about six weeks on the glacier in late 2019 and early 2020.

Using an underwater robot vehicle known as Icefin, mooring data and censors, they monitored the glacier's grounding line, where ice slides off the glacier and meets the ocean for the first time.

In one of the papers, led by Cornell University-based scientist Britney Schmidt, researchers found that warmer water was making its way into crevasses and other openings known as terraces, causing sideways melt of 30 meters (98 feet) or more per year.

"Warm water is getting into the weakest parts of the glacier and making it worse," Schmidt told Reuters.

"That is the kind of thing we should all be very concerned about," she said about the findings which underscored how climate change is reaching isolated Antarctica.