Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica earned its dramatic nickname, the “Doomsday Glacier,” because its collapse could trigger a catastrophic rise in sea levels. Now, researchers are exploring a solution that seems pulled from a Hollywood script.
The Seabed Curtain Project proposes to build an 80-kilometre wall in front of the glacier to prevent warm ocean currents from melting the ice.
This type of polar geoengineering has long been derided in scientific communities, with many insisting the focus should remain on reducing fossil fuel consumption. But as decarbonisation stalls, the project’s leaders believe it’s time to at least investigate whether this dramatic intervention is possible.
The “Doomsday Glacier” Threat
Thanks largely to melting glaciers and ice sheets, global sea levels have risen by 21–24 centimetres since 1880.
Sea levels are projected to rise even more in the years ahead. According to the World Meteorological Organization, two metres of additional sea-level rise is possible if greenhouse gas emissions aren’t significantly curtailed. This will affect an estimated one billion people, with coastal dwellers around the world facing intense flooding and erosion.
Thwaites Glacier is particularly vital because of its size and instability. Covering 192,000 square kilometres, it’s approximately the same size as Great Britain, and its ice loss already accounts for 4% of the world’s current sea-level rise.
Were Thwaites Glacier to collapse completely — the true “doomsday” scenario — it would single-handedly raise sea levels by 65 centimetres. This is the devastating outcome that researchers and funders are trying to prevent.
The Seabed Curtain: A Bold, Ambitious Proposal
While a seabed curtain would be remarkably complicated to construct, the idea behind it is relatively simple.
Antarctic glaciers like Thwaites melt when their lower portions are hit with flows of warm, saltier water. Researchers hope that by attaching a massive curtain to the sea floor in front of the glacier, they can block that warmer water from reaching the ice. This could keep the water around the glacier cold enough to decrease further melting and prevent the glacier’s collapse.
According to the project’s website, the Thwaites Glacier sea curtain would be 80 kilometres long and 150 metres high, all drilled into the seabed at a depth of 650 metres.
The Seabed Curtain Project is an initiative of the University of the Arctic (UArctic), which is actually a network of universities and other research institutions. It’s funded by Outlier Projects and Tom Wilhelmsen’s Foundation, two organizations known for supporting innovative environmental solutions.
“Sea level rise is one of the most serious climate risks facing humanity this century,” says Sasha Post, Director of Outlier Projects. “It is essential to accelerate research, like UArctic’s seabed anchor curtains project, to evaluate how to safely manage this risk.”
Geoengineering: Necessary Intervention, or Costly Distraction?
The Seabed Curtain Project has emerged in the midst of a vigorous debate around the merits of polar geoengineering.
In Sep. 2025, three climate scientists published an article in Frontiers in Science arguing that humans should consider proactively intervening in polar Earth systems. These interventions, they said, could reduce the harms of climate change. In the same issue, forty-two experts published a forceful rebuttal, insisting that polar geoengineering could be dangerous while needlessly distracting from the urgent need for decarbonisation.
The geoengineering skeptics raised concerns about several proposed interventions, including the construction of sea curtains. It would be a massive challenge, they argued, to place a wall on rugged underwater terrain, especially in “one of the harshest and most remote environments on Earth.” They also wrote that a sea curtain could interfere with oceanic circulation, cause pollution, and disrupt local marine life.
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For the researchers and organizers behind the Seabed Curtain Project, none of these drawbacks reduces the urgency of their work. With decarbonisation efforts falling short, geoengineering strikes them as an imperfect, but necessary, measure.
“I could not see a safe pathway forward for future generations,” says Marianne Hagen, one of the project’s leaders, “without doing the necessary research on these Band-Aid, buy-time solutions.”
Years of Research Ahead
The leaders of the Seabed Curtain Project are well aware of the challenges they face, and they’re not rushing into anything. They plan to conduct extensive scientific research on Thwaites Glacier to determine its exact conditions. Meanwhile, they’ll test sea curtain prototypes in the fjords of Norway while developing a governance structure for policymakers.
With such an ambitious proposal, progress is bound to move slowly — and researchers have already hit their first snag.
Professor David Holland, who works with the Seabed Curtain Project, recently joined a team of British and Korean researchers on an expedition to Thwaites Glacier. As part of their mission, they bored into the ice with a hot water drill, intending to deposit instruments that would gather data for years. Unfortunately, they failed to properly place the majority of the instruments, with only a few “pilot” devices deploying successfully.
But even these pilots have relayed useful information, and scientists insist that more research is forthcoming.
Besides, this was never meant to be a short-term plan. The Seabed Curtain Project intends to help policymakers decide whether a sea curtain is feasible — not now, but in 15 years.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of Impakter.com — In the Cover Photo: An overhead view of Thwaites Glacier. Cover Photo Credit: NASA.
