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CRYOSPHERIC SCIENCE

Thwaites Glacier and the bed beneath

Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is losing mass and has the potential to cause substantial sea level rise. New seabed imagery indicates that the glacier previously retreated at double its current rate, implying that mass loss could accelerate in the near future.

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Fig. 1: Schematic of Thwaites Glacier in two stages of retreat due to an influx of warm ocean waters onto the continental shelf.

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Correspondence to Andrew Mackintosh.

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Mackintosh, A. Thwaites Glacier and the bed beneath. Nat. Geosci. 15, 687–688 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-01020-2

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