Antarctica's tallest ice cliffs collapse — then steady themselves

The fear was a runaway: if Antarctica's tallest ice cliffs crumbled one after another, seas would rise fast. So MIT and Woods Hole researchers watched more than 15,000 ice cliffs for four years using NASA's ICESat-2 satellite. The tallest — up to 127 metres — did collapse and retreat quickly, but the retreat was short-lived, and every glacier they tracked eventually stabilised. Rising ground beneath the ice, faster thinning of the tallest cliffs, and rafts of broken ice all helped hold the line. The work, published in Science on 15 October, refines how scientists project sea-level rise.

SDG 13 · Climate action