Thwaites Glacier
E168608
Thwaites Glacier is a massive and rapidly melting Antarctic glacier, often called the "Doomsday Glacier" for its potential to significantly raise global sea levels if it collapses.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Thwaites Glacier canonical | 4 |
| Thwaites Glacier region | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1346040 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Thwaites Glacier Context triple: [Amundsen Sea, hasGlacier, Thwaites Glacier]
-
A.
Amalia Glacier
Amalia Glacier is a tidewater glacier in southern Chile, known for its dramatic calving front and rapid retreat along the edge of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field.
-
B.
Martial Glacier
Martial Glacier is a scenic mountain glacier near Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, popular for hiking, panoramic views, and winter sports.
-
C.
Chambers Glacier
Chambers Glacier is a glacier associated with the Three Sisters volcanic peaks in the Cascade Range of Oregon, United States.
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D.
Larsen Ice Shelf
The Larsen Ice Shelf is a large Antarctic ice shelf fringing the eastern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, known for its dramatic partial collapses that have highlighted the impacts of climate change.
-
E.
Ross Ice Shelf
The Ross Ice Shelf is the world’s largest ice shelf, a vast floating extension of the Antarctic ice sheet that plays a key role in buttressing inland glaciers and influencing global sea-level stability.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Thwaites Glacier Target entity description: Thwaites Glacier is a massive and rapidly melting Antarctic glacier, often called the "Doomsday Glacier" for its potential to significantly raise global sea levels if it collapses.
-
A.
Amalia Glacier
Amalia Glacier is a tidewater glacier in southern Chile, known for its dramatic calving front and rapid retreat along the edge of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field.
-
B.
Martial Glacier
Martial Glacier is a scenic mountain glacier near Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, popular for hiking, panoramic views, and winter sports.
-
C.
Chambers Glacier
Chambers Glacier is a glacier associated with the Three Sisters volcanic peaks in the Cascade Range of Oregon, United States.
-
D.
Larsen Ice Shelf
The Larsen Ice Shelf is a large Antarctic ice shelf fringing the eastern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, known for its dramatic partial collapses that have highlighted the impacts of climate change.
-
E.
Ross Ice Shelf
The Ross Ice Shelf is the world’s largest ice shelf, a vast floating extension of the Antarctic ice sheet that plays a key role in buttressing inland glaciers and influencing global sea-level stability.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Antarctic glacier
ⓘ
glacier ⓘ marine-terminating glacier ⓘ |
| area | approximately 192000 square kilometers ⓘ |
| continent | Antarctica ⓘ |
| country | Antarctica ⓘ |
| discoveredBy | British explorers ⓘ |
| discoveredDuring | 1930s ⓘ |
| drainageBasinArea | approximately 192000 square kilometers ⓘ |
| drainsInto | Amundsen Sea ⓘ |
| flowRate | several kilometers per year ⓘ |
| hasFeature |
basal crevasses
ⓘ
buttressing ice shelf ⓘ grounding line ⓘ subglacial channels ⓘ |
| hasNickname | Doomsday Glacier ⓘ |
| hasProcess |
grounding line retreat
ⓘ
marine ice sheet instability ⓘ |
| hasRisk |
acceleration of ice discharge into the ocean
ⓘ
possible irreversible retreat ⓘ |
| hasStatus |
rapidly retreating
ⓘ
thinning ⓘ unstable ⓘ |
| isConsidered |
critical tipping element in the climate system
ⓘ
one of the most vulnerable glaciers in Antarctica ⓘ |
| isKeyTo | stability of West Antarctic Ice Sheet ⓘ |
| isSubjectOf |
climate change impact studies
ⓘ
intensive glaciological research ⓘ |
| length | approximately 120 kilometers ⓘ |
| locatedIn | West Antarctica ⓘ |
| locatedOn | Antarctic Ice Sheet ⓘ |
| monitoredBy |
airborne surveys
ⓘ
oceanographic measurements ⓘ satellite observations ⓘ seismic and radar sounding ⓘ |
| namedAfter | Fredrik T. Thwaites ⓘ |
| partOf |
Amundsen Sea
ⓘ
surface form:
Amundsen Sea Embayment
|
| potentialSeaLevelContribution |
over 3 meters including connected basins over longer timescales
ⓘ
over 60 centimeters if fully collapsed ⓘ |
| retreatDrivenBy |
basal melting
ⓘ
intrusion of warm Circumpolar Deep Water ⓘ loss of ice-shelf buttressing ⓘ ocean warming ⓘ |
| studiedBy |
International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration
ⓘ
United Kingdom scientists ⓘ United States scientists ⓘ |
| terminusType |
calving front
ⓘ
ice shelf ⓘ |
| threatens | global sea level stability ⓘ |
| width | approximately 120 kilometers at the grounding line ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Thwaites Glacier Description of subject: Thwaites Glacier is a massive and rapidly melting Antarctic glacier, often called the "Doomsday Glacier" for its potential to significantly raise global sea levels if it collapses.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Thwaites Glacier region