Environment & Energy

New study reveals fastest Antarctic glacier retreat in modern history
https://ik.imagekit.io/s1sp3stox/tr:h-748,w-1584,fo-auto/press-office/news-events/news/2025/11/HG-Banner.jpg
Hektoria and Green, once glaciated, are now reduced to drifting ice rubble. Credit: Naomi Ochwat, lead author of the study and Post-Doctoral Associate at CU Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), 26 February 2024.

…

Hektoria Glacier rested on an ice plain—a flat stretch of bedrock below sea level—which, once retreat began, saw large sections of ice break away in quick succession.

The scale and speed of Hektoria’s collapse may now help scientists identify other vulnerable glaciers and prioritise them for close monitoring.

Although Hektoria Glacier is relatively small by Antarctic standards—covering just 115 square miles, slightly smaller than the city of Swansea—its rapid retreat serves as a stark warning. If similar events occur on larger glaciers, there will be consequences for the rate of global sea level rise.

Professor Adrian Luckman, Chair in Geography at Swansea University and co-author of the study, said: “Glaciers don’t usually retreat this fast. The circumstances may be a little particular, but this scale of ice loss shows what may happen elsewhere in Antarctica, where glaciers are lightly grounded and sea ice loses its grip.

…