If the Thwaites Glacier melted entirely, experts said it would raise sea levels by 3.3 metres, enough to put Westminster, Battersea and Canary Wharf underwater.
A massive ice sheet in Antarctica - equal to the size of Great Britain - could be all but lost by the 23rd century, experts warn. The Thwaites Glacier is one of the largest and fastest-moving in the world. Along with the wider region - the Amundsen Sea Embayment - it accounts for 8% of the current rate of global sea level rise, at 4.6mm a year.
'However, there is also concern that additional processes revealed by recent studies, which are not yet well enough studied to be incorporated into large-scale models, could cause retreat to accelerate sooner.' Thwaites Glacier rests on a bed far below sea level that slopes downwards towards the heart of West Antarctica, leaving it more vulnerable to rising sea temperatures. It is roughly 120km across, making it the widest in the world, and in some places is more than 2,000 metres thick.
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