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A glacier the size of Florida is on the brink—and two researchers in Wisconsin are racing against time to stop it. Known as the “doomsday glacier,” the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica could trigger over six feet of sea level rise if it collapses, submerging coastal cities and displacing millions. According to WPR’s Trevor Hook, scientists Marianne Haseloff and Luke Zoet at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are working to understand how fast glaciers move and how we might actually prevent them from sliding into the sea.
Supported by the Arête Glacier Initiative—a collaboration with MIT and Dartmouth—Haseloff is developing predictive models of glacier movement, while Zoet is building just the second machine on Earth that can simulate glacier-bedrock friction. Think of it as a giant icy donut that spins under lab conditions to mimic real-world glacier dynamics…