evidence: Scientists, speaking at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in New Orleans this month, reported that a critical section of the keystone Antarctic glacier, Thwaites Glacier, will likely collapse in the next five to ten years. The research, led by Erin Pettit of Oregon State University, predicts that the Thwaites ice shelf will break apart within the next decade because of startling increases in surface fractures and rifts. Up until now the floating section at the outlet of Thwaites Glacier into the ocean, called the ice shelf, has been relatively stable, but the scientists say it could "shatter like a car windscreen." [...] It is not only the fracturing and breakup of ice that is worrying scientists, but the warming of ocean temperatures, which is melting the ice shelf from below. Much of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is grounded below sea level, which means that as the glaciers retreat inland, more ice is exposed to warm ocean waters. This shift is causing great concern because melting from below is also loosening Thwaite’s grip on its pinning point, causing the glacier to become more unstable. Intensive work has been done to better understand the ice-ocean interaction in the region by boring holes hundreds of meters deep through the ice and by deploying submersible robots to dive under the ice shelf and collect data autonomously.