wunder Thwaites Melting Faster
Friday, October 16, 2026 · 54 seconds
By Wunder News
Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier may be losing ice faster than scientists thought. A new study in the journal Nature Communications, from glaciologists at UC Irvine and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, rebuilt the glacier in a computer model. The key change: instead of a thin line where ice lifts off the seafloor, the model includes a grounding zone, two to five kilometers wide, where warm ocean water seeps underneath and melts the ice from below.
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Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier may be losing ice faster than scientists thought. A new study in the journal Nature Communications, from glaciologists at UC Irvine and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, rebuilt the glacier in a computer model. The key change: instead of a thin line where ice lifts off the seafloor, the model includes a grounding zone, two to five kilometers wide, where warm ocean water seeps underneath and melts the ice from below. With that added, the model finally matched about three decades of real retreat. Run forward, it projects Thwaites could add up to 30 millimeters, about 1.2 inches, to global sea level by 2100. That's roughly double earlier projections, even without more warming. The glacier could come loose from a seafloor ridge that holds it in place as early as 2038. Wunder Science.