'Only one vessel—the U.S. research icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer—has successfully penetrated the area's phalanx of sea ice...to reach a critical location on Thwaites, widely considered the world's most dangerous glacier.'
As we face accelerated threats to the deep oceanâfrom climate change to potential mining and resource exploitationâthis limited exploration of such a vast region becomes a critical problem for both science and policy.