Hektoria Glacier melts 10 times faster and loses half its ice in only 2 months
DISASTERS 4 November 2025 - News on Tuesday, November 4, 2025, detailed the catastrophic and record-breaking retreat of the relatively small Hektoria Glacier, which lost nearly 50% of its ice mass in just two months due to its underlying flat bedrock plain. This unprecedented speed acts as a critical alarm for the much larger Thwaites Glacier—or the "Doomsday Glacier"—which is vulnerable to the same rapid disintegration mechanism. The immediate contribution of Hektoria's loss to sea level rise is minor, but its significance lies in its warning to Thwaites. If the entire Thwaites Glacier were to collapse, it could directly raise global sea levels by approximately 65 centimeters (25 inches). More critically, the loss of Thwaites could destabilize the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet, potentially raising sea levels by 3.3 to over 5 meters in the long term. See: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-025-01802-4