Researchers set up camp on Thwaites Glacier to probe melting from below

After weather delays, a team of scientists has established a camp on Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier to bore half a mile through the ice and place instruments in the warming ocean beneath the glacier. The group flew roughly 17 tons of gear from the icebreaker Araon by helicopter and pitched 10 single‑occupancy sleeping tents, a science tent and two toilet tents on a flat, 650‑foot‑long strip of ice.

The camp’s wider end, about 160 feet across, will host the drilling system; power for the operation and camp equipment comes from several generators. Temperatures at the site were about 24.8 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 4 Celsius) on Monday evening, and skuas were present around the equipment.

Scientists say they aim to see how warm ocean currents and other waters are melting Thwaites from below, a process that researchers fear could someday trigger the glacier’s total collapse and raise global sea levels. The drilling team says collecting sustained measurements under the ice is needed to improve models of Antarctic melting; several members previously bored a hole through Thwaites’s eastern ice shelf in 2020, while a 2022 expedition was blocked by sea ice.

The drilling rig will take a week to set up, blizzards could slow work, and the team’s 10 members must leave the glacier by Feb. 7 so the Araon can begin its return voyage to New Zealand.

Key Topics

Science, Thwaites Glacier, Araon, British Antarctic Survey, Ji Sung Na, Scott Polfrey