The Thwaites glacier is nicknamed 'Doomsday' for its rapid rate of melting. 9News
glacier nearly the size of Great Britain is melting faster than it has in the past 5500 years, a new study has found.
Antarctica is covered by two huge ice masses: the East and West Antarctic Ice Sheets, which feed many individual glaciers. Because of the warming climate, the WAIS has been thinning at accelerated rates over the past few decades.Within the ice sheet, the Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers are particularly vulnerable to global warming and are already contributing to rises in sea level.
With areas of 192,000 square kilometres and 162,300 square kilometres respectively, the Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers have the potential to cause large rises in global sea level. At the current rate of retreat, the study authors found, the glaciers could fuel a 3.4m rise across the next several centuries.