A helicopter leaves the deck of the research icebreaker Araon—rotors biting into the cold Antarctic air, the ship moored in the shadow of Thwaites Glacier. But where there’s a shadow, there is sunshine. Bright, beautiful sunshine
The scene is simple, but it carries enormous weight.
Thwaites is often called the “Doomsday Glacier.” Roughly the size of Florida and sitting on bedrock below sea level, it helps hold back a vast reservoir of inland ice. Scientists believe warm ocean water is reaching a hidden boundary called the grounding line, where ice, land, and sea meet—melting the glacier from below and potentially accelerating ice loss across much of West Antarctica.
The helicopter’s destination is the ice three thousand feet about that invisible line.
Aboard Araon, operated by South Korea’s Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI), an international team of scientists from institutions including New York University, the British Antarctic Survey, and UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography is racing narrow weather windows to reach the ice. Their marquee goal is to establish a hot-water drill camp and melt a narrow shaft through hundreds of meters of glacier, lowering instruments into the dark ocean beneath.
With the clock ticking—by my count, about 20 days left in the season’s workable window—British Antarctic Survey oceanographer Pete Davis has improvised a leaner plan. The team brought 20 tons worth of gear to build and operate the hot water drill camp. It was supposed to take 45 helicopter sling loads to get all the gear and people to the spot on the ice where they like to poke the hole. But Davis is leaving some spare parts behind, as well as a few creature comforts for the ten-person team that stays in camp. But don’t worry campers, the bread maker is on the minimum equipment list.
People who make their living exploring in this part of the world tend to go in with very low expectations. Davis is no exception to that rule.
“Even one temperature profile from this location would tell us a huge amount,” Davis told me. Those data points could help scientists understand how heat moves under the ice—and how fast coastlines, cities, and communities around the world may have to adapt.
The helicopter lifts, banks, and disappears into the wild blue.
Out here, every flight is a chance. Every clear hour is an opportunity you can’t afford to waste.
