Overview
- Hektoria shortened by about 25 kilometers between January 2022 and March 2023, including roughly 8 kilometers lost in November–December 2022, the fastest modern retreat on record.
- Multi-sensor analysis shows thinning over a flat sub-sea bed allowed grounded ice to become buoyant, triggering rapid, cascading calving that removed nearly half the glacier in weeks.
- Seismic instruments detected glacier earthquakes during the breakup, indicating portions were grounded beforehand and that the ice loss contributed directly to sea-level rise.
- The rapid loss followed the breakup of coastal fast ice and the disintegration of Hektoria’s floating ice tongue in 2022, which exposed the glacier to ocean forces and accelerated thinning.
- Scientists warn that the same mechanism on larger Antarctic glaciers could greatly speed sea-level rise, though some researchers dispute the grounding interpretation and call for more detailed bed mapping and monitoring.