An Antarctic Glacier Retreated (i.e. "Melted & Collapsed) 5 Miles In 2 Months; Rate Of Retreat 10X Prior Record

More than five miles of glacial ice in Antarctica vanished in only two months, retreating 10 times faster than the previous record, with possible implications for the stability of other glaciers and the pace of sea-level rise on a warming planet. The research on the ice retreat was published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Hektoria Glacier, on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula, is tiny by Antarctic standards. But its rapid retreat — the fastest ever recorded for a glacier tethered to the ground — may be a preview of what is possible for the continent’s other, much larger glaciers. If some of those crumble as quickly as Hektoria did, their disintegration could accelerate sea-level rise and spell trouble for island nations and coastal cities around the world. The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth.

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But Christine Batchelor, an ice sheet scientist at Newcastle University who was not involved in the paper, said there is disagreement in the glaciological community about the glacier’s grounding zone — that is, the spot under the ice where the ground ends and the ice begins floating. If the grounding zone is more inland than the paper suggests, that would mean most of Hektoria’s ice was already bobbing in the water. “If this section of the ice sheet was floating, the main finding of this work would instead be that icebergs broke off from an ice shelf, which is much less unusual behavior,” Batchelor said.

But Ochwat said the fact that seismic sensors picked up on a series of earthquakes while Hektoria was in retreat suggests the ice had been resting on bedrock. “Because that ice is touching the Earth, we get earthquakes.”

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/11/04/hektoria-glacier-retreat-record-antarctica/