Warm water is sneaking underneath the Thwaites Glacier — and rapidly melting it

In Antarctica, the warm ocean is stealthily attacking a major glacier through a previously unknown route — undermining its foundation on a daily basis.

As each rising tide lifts the coastal terminus of the southern continent’s Thwaites Glacier a tiny bit off the seafloor, warm salty water squeezes in underneath, satellite measurements reveal. This inrush of seawater forces its way many kilometers inland as it melts the ice from beneath. The melt water and seawater are then flushed back out as the tide falls, researchers report May 20 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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