A Robot Finds More Trouble Under the Doomsday Glacier

Icefin the robot is designed to go where no human can, swimming off the coast of Antarctica under 2,000 feet of ice. Lowered through a borehole drilled with hot water, the torpedo-shaped machine takes readings and--most strikingly--video of Thwaites Glacier's vulnerable underbelly. This Florida-sized chunk of ice is also known as the Doomsday Glacier, and for good reason: It's rapidly deteriorating, and if it collapses, global sea levels could rise over a foot. It could also tug on surrounding glaciers as it dies, which would add another 10 feet to rising seas. In a pair of papers published today in the journal Nature, scientists describe what Icefin and other instruments have discovered underneath all that ice.