Thwaites Glacier

Thwaites Glacier (75°30′S 106°45′W / 75.500°S 106.750°W / -75.500; -106.750) is an unusually broad and fast Antarctic glacier flowing into Pine Island Bay, part of the Amundsen Sea, east of Mount Murphy, on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land. Its surface speeds exceed 2 km/yr near its grounding line, and its fastest flowing grounded ice is centred between 50 and 100 km east of Mount Murphy. It was named by ACAN for Fredrik T. Thwaites, a glacial geologist, geomorphologist and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Thwaits Glacier drains into West Antarctica’s Amundsen Sea and is being closely watched for its potential to raise global sea levels.

Along with Pine Island Glacier, Thwaites Glacier has been described as part of the "weak underbelly" of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, due to its apparent vulnerability to significant retreat. This hypothesis is based on both theoretical studies of the stability of marine ice sheets and recent observations of large changes on both of these glaciers. In recent years, the flow of both of these glaciers has accelerated, their surfaces have lowered, and their grounding lines have retreated.

In 2011, using geophysical data collected from flights over Thwaites Glacier (data collected under NASA's Ice Bridge campaign), a study by scientists at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory showed a rock feature, a ridge 700 meters tall helps anchor the glacier and actually helped slow the glacier's slide into the sea. The study also confirms the importance of seafloor topography in predicting how these glaciers will behave in the near future.