Researchers are sailing to a distant part of Antarctica so they can better understand how much and how fast seas could rise because of global warming.The area, which is where the Thwaites glacier is located, is sometimes called "the place in the world that's the hardest to get to."Thirty-two scientists are starting a more than two-month trip aboard an American research ship.Their goal is to study the area where the large, but melting, Thwaites glacier faces the Amundsen Sea.The glacier, which is about the size of the American state of Florida, has gotten the nickname the "doomsday glacier."The nickname comes from how much ice it has and how much seas could rise if it all melts--more than 65 centimeters over hundreds of years.Because of its importance, the United States and the United Kingdom launched a $50 million mission to study Thwaites, the widest glacier in the world.Not near any of Antarctica's research stations, Thwaites is on Antarctica's western half, east of the Antarctic Peninsula.Anna Wahlin of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden is on the research trip.
