Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Hektoria Glacier on Antarctica’s Eastern Peninsula experienced the fastest retreat recorded in modern history—in just two months, nearly 50 percent of the glacier disintegrated.
A new CIRES-led study details how and why Hektoria Glacier retreated at an unprecedented rate in late 2022 and early 2023, losing a total of eight kilometers of ice in two months.
The main driver was the underlying flat bedrock that enabled the glacier to go afloat after it substantially thinned, causing a rare rapid calving process.
The new findings may help researchers identify other glaciers to monitor for rapid retreat in the future. Hektoria Glacier is small by Antarctic standards—only about 115 square miles, or roughly the size of Philadelphia—but a similar rapid retreat on larger Antarctic glaciers could have catastrophic implications for global sea level rise.
“When we flew over Hektoria in early 2024, I couldn’t believe the vastness of the area that had collapsed,” said Naomi Ochwat, lead author and CIRES postdoctoral researcher. “I had seen the fjord and notable mountain features in the satellite images, but being there in person filled me with astonishment at what had happened.”
Read more about the work here: https://cires.colorado.edu/news/antarctic-glacier-retreated-faster-any-other-modern-history
Read the original research paper here: nature.com/articles/s41561-025-01802-4
Video produced by Lauren Lipuma at CIRES.
Imagery by Google Earth and Landsat.
Hektoria Glacier on Antarctica’s Eastern Peninsula experienced the fastest retreat recorded in modern history—in just two months, nearly 50 percent of the glacier disintegrated.
A new CIRES-led study details how and why Hektoria Glacier retreated at an unprecedented rate in late 2022 and early 2023, losing a total of eight kilometers of ice in two months.
The main driver was the underlying flat bedrock that enabled the glacier to go afloat after it substantially thinned, causing a rare rapid calving process.
The new findings may help researchers identify other glaciers to monitor for rapid retreat in the future. Hektoria Glacier is small by Antarctic standards—only about 115 square miles, or roughly the size of Philadelphia—but a similar rapid retreat on larger Antarctic glaciers could have catastrophic implications for global sea level rise.
“When we flew over Hektoria in early 2024, I couldn’t believe the vastness of the area that had collapsed,” said Naomi Ochwat, lead author and CIRES postdoctoral researcher. “I had seen the fjord and notable mountain features in the satellite images, but being there in person filled me with astonishment at what had happened.”
Read more about the work here: https://cires.colorado.edu/news/antarctic-glacier-retreated-faster-any-other-modern-history
Read the original research paper here: nature.com/articles/s41561-025-01802-4
Video produced by Lauren Lipuma at CIRES.
Imagery by Google Earth and Landsat.
