thwaites divide is the project's staging post in the middle of the west antarctic ice sheet. in the middle of the west antarctic ice sheet. this is where passengers fuel and cargo are dropped off before being ferried on to the field sites on the glacier itself. the plan is only to stay here for a couple of days, but this being antarctica, it's not long before the weather changes again. so we've been out here for like, i don't know, an hour and a half, and this is the result. it gives you an idea of why it is so difficult to operate here. all the planes are grounded, they're saying we won't fly anywhere for at least three days. keeping the camp from being overwhelmed by snow is a full—timejob for the snowploughs. the wind is gusting up to 50 miles an hour and the temperature is —20. check the snotcicles on this! oh, my god, that's absolutely horrible. oh, god. ergh. i can't get it off. i do manage to warm up but i realise something isn't quite right. my finger has gone all kind of white and it looks a bit burnt. i think you should go and see the doctor to see if it needs a dres

the fear is if the melt rate increases, much of the west antarctic ice sheet could go, too.levels by more than three metres. why is the glacier changing, why is it being eaten away? it's being eaten away because there are winds on the ocean's surface that are actually driving currents away from this ice sheet. when that happens, this water comes in underneath like this. this deep ocean water is really warm. and that eats away at the glacier? this normally doesn't happen. these winds have been increasing and so more of this water has been coming up onto the continental shelf and interacting with this glacier. the scientists say global warming has changed the wind patterns and sea currents, bringing warm ocean water to the front of the glacier. we have loaded the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, we have set the temperature going up, and... doctor britney schmidt is in charge of a nasa robot submarine called icefin. the plan is to lower it almost half a mile through the ice to map conditions in the seawater below. so, britney, give me a tour of icefin? so, up at the front we hav