As the glacier weakens, it then becomes more prone to surface fractures that could spread until the entire ice shelf shatters 'like a car window' - and that could happen as soon as three years from now, researchers said at AGU, held in New Orleans and online.

Warming ocean water is not just melting Thwaites from below it's also loosening the glacier's grip on the submerged seamount below, making it even more unstable. Thwaites is sometimes referred to as the 'Doomsday Glacier,' as its collapse could trigger a cascade of glacial collapse in Antarctica, and the latest research from the frozen continent suggests that doomsday may be coming for the dwindling glacier even sooner than expected. Thwaites glacier in western Antarctica is the widest glacier on Earth, spanning about 80 miles (120 kilometers) and extending to a depth of about 2,600 to 3,900 feet (800 to 1,200 meters) at its grounding line - where the glacier transitions from a land-attached ice mass to a floating ice shelf in the Amundsen Sea.

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