Warm ocean water is rushing beneath Antarctica's 'Doomsday Glacier,' making its collapse more likely

Antarctica's "Doomsday Glacier" is melting significantly faster than scientists previously thought, thanks to warm ocean water that is infiltrating miles beneath its surface, a new study has found. 

The Thwaites Glacier, which is nicknamed the Doomsday Glacier because of its potential to massively increase sea levels, is located in West Antarctica and is roughly the size of Florida. 

Previous research found that the glacier has been melting rapidly since the 1980s — contributing to a 4% rise in global sea levels with the loss of hundreds of billions of tons of ice. If the glacier completely melted, it could raise sea levels by as much as 2 feet (60 centimeters). 

However, Thwaites Glacier also impacts sea levels because it acts as a natural dam preventing the surrounding ice of West Antarctica from sliding into the ocean. If the glacier were to collapse completely, sea levels could rise by up to 10 feet (3 meters).

Yet scientists have struggled to quantify the exact rate of the glacier's melting, in part because of the challenges of peering beneath its thick ice.

Now, new radar data has revealed that warm, high-pressure seawater has filtered through to the base of the vulnerable glacier. This means that Thwaites' risk of melting could be more severe than first thought. The researchers published their findings Monday (May 20) in the journal PNAS.

Related: Antarctica's 'Doomsday Glacier' is hemorrhaging ice faster than in the past 5,500 years