The Thwaites Glacier is one of the biggest glaciers in Antartica. It flows into Pine Island Bay which is part of the Amundsen Sea in Western Antartica.
Thwaites is also called ‘Doomsday glacier’ and has been noted for its potential to raise sea levels.
Until recently it was stable, but now scientists have discovered that a weakness has developed at the front of the glacier. They say that the ice shelf on the front of the glacier could shatter like a car’s windscreen, within the next decade, because of startling increases in surface fractures and rifts.
Researchers have observed that over the last decade Thwaites has undergone more dramatic changes than any other glaciers in Antarctica due to climate change and increased warming in the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans