ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2024
Widespread seawater intrusions beneath the grounded ice of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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15 citing papers in PubMed.
- Sea-level contribution from Thwaites Glacier doubles in an observation-constrained ice-sheet model.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Review
- Paleo-salt water dominates coastal aquifer salinization: A continental-scale study in China.Science advances · 2026Article
- Acceleration of an Antarctic outlet glacier driven by surface meltwater input to the base.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Subglacial water flow and ice dynamics during glacial lake outburst floods observed from space.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Thirty years of glacier grounding line retreat in Antarctica.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Repeated major inland retreat of Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers (West Antarctica) during the Pliocene.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- ICESat-2 land ice products resolve Greenland and Antarctic ice-sheet height changes on seasonal to multiyear time scales.The journal of glaciology · 2026Article
- Contrasting melt regime in the Ice Grounding Zone of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Rapid retreat of Berry Glacier, West Antarctica, linked to seawater intrusions revealed by radar interferometry.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Drainage failure and associated urban impacts under combined sea-level rise and precipitation scenarios.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Half a century of dynamic instability following the ocean-driven break-up of Wordie Ice Shelf.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Subglacial water amplifies Antarctic contributions to sea-level rise.Nature communications · 2025Article
- The influence of subglacial lake discharge on Thwaites Glacier ice-shelf melting and grounding-line retreat.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Widespread seawater intrusions beneath the grounded ice of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
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6 authors.
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Abstract
Warm water from the Southern Ocean has a dominant impact on the evolution of Antarctic glaciers and in turn on their contribution to sea level rise. Using a continuous time series of daily-repeat satellite synthetic-aperture radar interferometry data from the ICEYE constellation collected in March-June 2023, we document an ice grounding zone, or region of tidally controlled migration of the transition boundary between grounded ice and ice afloat in the ocean, at the main trunk of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica, a strong contributor to sea level rise with an ice volume equivalent to a 0.6-m global sea level rise. The ice grounding zone is 6 km wide in the central part of Thwaites with shallow bed slopes, and 2 km wide along its flanks with steep basal slopes. We additionally detect irregular seawater intrusions, 5 to 10 cm in thickness, extending another 6 km upstream, at high tide, in a bed depression located beyond a bedrock ridge that impedes the glacier retreat. Seawater intrusions align well with regions predicted by the GlaDS subglacial water model to host a high-pressure distributed subglacial hydrology system in between lower-pressure subglacial channels. Pressurized seawater intrusions will induce vigorous melt of grounded ice over kilometers, making the glacier more vulnerable to ocean warming, and increasing the projections of ice mass loss. Kilometer-wide, widespread seawater intrusion beneath grounded ice may be the missing link between the rapid, past, and present changes in ice sheet mass and the slower changes replicated by ice sheet models.
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