A large glacier in Antarctica is at risk of melting at a faster rate than previously expected, researchers announced this week.

In a study published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience, researchers said the Thwaites Glacier melted by as much as 1.3 miles per year over a period of about six months in the last 200 years.

That's twice as fast as the rate documented between 2011 to 2019.

That's twice as fast as the rate documented between 2011 to 2019.

"Our results suggest that pulses of very rapid retreat have occurred at Thwaites Glacier in the last two centuries, and possibly as recently as the mid-20th Century," Alastair Graham

The researchers said that the glacier's retreat is a dire sign for the future as temperatures continue to rise around the planet.

"Thwaites is really holding on today by its fingernails, and we should expect to see big changes over small time scales in the future — even from one year to the next.

Once the glacier retreats beyond a shallow ridge in its bed," said British Antarctic Survey's Robert Larter, a co-author of the study.

According to NBC News, the Thwaites is about the size of Florida and accounts for around 5 percent of Antarctica's involvement in sea-level rise around the world.