Recent research led by Ian Joughin of the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory has shown that the ice shelf responsible for holding back one of the fastest-moving Antarctic glaciers is imploding, the culmination of decades of warming and stress. The ice shelf supports the Pine Island Glacier, which contains around 180 trillion tons of ice, an amount that could lead to 1.6 feet of sea level rise if it were allowed to completely flow into the ocean. The glacier’s advance is already responsible for raising the global sea level by one-sixth of a millimeter per year, a rate equivalent to two-thirds of an inch per century, and one that is expected to increase in coming years. In the past, the glacier’s acceleration was driven by warm ocean currents melting the undersides of the ice shelves supporting it, but Joughin and his team have noticed a different process in recent years, which is not directly caused by ocean warming. Instead, studying data from 2017-2020, the team observed that the glacier’s previous acceleration had caused the ice shelf to rip itself apart. This phenomenon was responsible for the majority of the glacier’s acceleration in recent years. However, the future of Pine Island is still unclear. Currently, the glacier’s acceleration is not catastrophic, but if the Pine Island Ice Shelf is lost in upcoming decades, as seems possible, the rapid changes could lead to drastic, irreversible consequences felt all across the globe.