Overview
- An international BAS–KOPRI team has established a temporary outpost on Thwaites, airlifting about 10 personnel and roughly 17 tons of gear by helicopter some 18–19 miles from their ship.
- Researchers plan to hot‑water drill about 1,000 metres through the ice to a 30‑centimetre borehole, deploying instruments that will transmit near‑real‑time readings from beneath the ice shelf.
- The operation faces a hard cutoff as the support vessel must depart by 7 February, with progress constrained by severe weather, crevasse risk, and boreholes that refreeze within one to two days.
- Measurements will target subshelf temperatures, currents, water and sediment samples, and calving‑driven underwater waves that can mix warm deep water upward and accelerate melting.
- Scientists say data from this campaign will sharpen sea‑level projections, as a full collapse of Thwaites could raise global sea levels by about 65 centimetres.