The Thwaites ‘Doomsday Glacier’ Is About To Collapse

特怀特斯“末日冰川”即将崩溃

New Scientist Podcasts

2026-05-25

16 分钟
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Episode 372 Part of the world’s widest glacier is about to collapse and could trigger a 3 metre rise in sea levels, threatening coastal cities around the world.  Thwaites is a massive glacier in Antarctica - the size of Florida. A key part of the glacier could break away any day now - an ice shelf that helps protect the main glacier from warm ocean water. Scientists are shocked by the speed at which these changes have happened. Is there anything we can do to stop it? To discuss the news, Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet are joined by New Scientist’s Alison George - former British Antarctic Survey scientist. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  • We talked about sea level rise recently on the podcast,

  • and today we're here to discuss some very worrying news about the world's widest glacier.

  • That's the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica, sometimes called the Doomsday Glacier.

  • And with good reason.

  • Yeah, so Thwaites has this massive glacier, size of Florida or Britain.

  • Mind-bogglingly big, isn't it?

  • On the end of it, there's this big tongue of ice hanging off into the ocean.

  • And the news is that that ice shelf is about to detach from the main part of the glacier.

  • And that has basically desperate implications for sea level rise.

  • From New Scientist, this is the World, the Universe and Us.

  • I'm Dr. Rowan Hooper.