The Thwaites Glacier, famously dubbed the “Doomsday Glacier,” has dominated international headlines this week as a high-stakes scientific mission in West Antarctica faced a catastrophic equipment failure. As of 06 February 2026, researchers are grappling with the loss of critical sensors designed to monitor the glacier’s accelerating melt, which threatens to raise global sea levels by up to 65 centimetres.
The international team, comprising scientists from the British Antarctic Survey and South Korea, successfully used hot-water drills to create a borehole roughly 1,000 metres (3,300 feet) deep. While the mission captured rare, “crazy” footage of the glacier’s underbelly via a lowered camera, the primary objective—installing a long-term sensor array—ended in “heartbreak” when the instruments became stuck or lost within the icy core.
Why the “Doomsday” Label?
Thwaites is roughly the size of the United Kingdom (192,000 km²) and acts as a cork for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Its collapse would not only contribute 25 inches to sea-level rise directly but could destabilize neighbouring glaciers, potentially leading to several metres of global sea-level increase over centuries. Currently, the glacier accounts for approximately 4% of annual global sea-level rise.
The 80-Kilometre “Sea Curtain” Proposal
In response to findings that the glacier is melting faster than previously modelled, a controversial geoengineering debate has resurfaced this week. Experts are discussing the feasibility of a 50-mile (80-kilometre) seabed curtain or wall. This 150-metre-tall barrier would be anchored to the seafloor to block warm circumpolar deep water from reaching the glacier’s grounding line—the point where the ice meets the ocean floor and is most vulnerable to erosion.
| Metric | Data Point |
|---|---|
| Surface Area | ~192,000 km² |
| Front Width | 120 km |
| Potential Sea Level Rise | 65 cm (direct) |
| Recent Borehole Depth | 1,000 metres |
Current Scientific Outlook
Despite the recent setback with the borehole instruments, the mission has provided new insights into the “upside-down world” beneath the ice shelf. Researchers observed that the ice base is not a smooth surface but a complex landscape of terraces and crevasses where melting is most intense. The failure of the 2026 drilling mission underscores the extreme difficulty of operating in the most remote region of Antarctica, located more than 1,600 kilometres from the nearest permanent research station.
While the “Doomsday Clock” was recently adjusted to 85 seconds to midnight, the focus remains on whether human intervention—either through radical geoengineering like the “Sea Curtain” or drastic emissions reductions—can prevent the Thwaites grounding line from retreating into the deep basins of the West Antarctic interior.