Overview
- The peer-reviewed study in Nature Geoscience documents an 8.2-kilometer retreat between November and December 2022, about ten times faster than previously observed terrestrial glacier averages.
- University of Colorado scientists identified the event using two decades of satellite and remote-sensing data and verified the extent on an early 2024 aerial survey.
- The team reports that quakes beneath Hektoria’s marine ice plain induced flotation, enabling ocean-driven basal cracks to connect with surface fractures and break off large sections.
- Regional fast-ice changes played a role, with stabilizing sea ice that built up after 2011 breaking away in 2022 and removing buttressing that left the glacier exposed to wave action.
- Researchers warn that this mechanism echoes past ultrarapid retreats and, if replicated in larger Antarctic glaciers, could accelerate sea-level rise, prompting calls for targeted monitoring and modeling.