A Seabed Curtain Project Overview
The project will explore if it is possible to delay the global sea level rise by delaying the melting of specific glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica.
Our goal is to present a foundation for a decision to be made in 15 years based on solid peer-reviewed science, proven technology and a legal framework.
The Seabed Anchored Curtain Project
The Seabed Anchored Curtain project will limit sea level rise by creating barriers that would protect ice sheets from warm ocean waters that flow beneath the fringing ice shelves. Spurred by the impending collapse of Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier, this strategy will limit the access of warm water to the most vulnerable parts of ice sheets. This could be possible as the warm, dense, bottom waters are within relatively narrow channels in the continental shelf.
Exchange flow pattern of Subsea Anchored Curtain protecting tidewater glacier
Glacier front
Buoyant meltwater plume turbulently entrains deep seawater
Subglacial meltwater
Recirculation
Overflow nappe
Deep warm seawater
Foundation section
Seabed Anchored Curtain
Reinforced tensile fabric
Buoyancy element
Inward flow of warmer and more saline water
Outward surface flow of colder and fresher water with floating ice
Our project is a non-profit, multi-national, and collaborative effort that brings together researchers and engineers from groups such as Cambridge University, University of Chicago, Alfred Wegener Institute, New York University, Dartmouth College, NIVA, Aker Solutions, and the University of Lapland’s Arctic Centre to engineer curtains that will redirect warm ocean currents away from the Thwaites Glacier, inhibiting widespread ice sheet collapse.
Project activities fall into three categories: science, technology, and governance. Over the current three-year program, we will target the technology development, engineering, and the scientific testing of prototypes deployed at a fjord site in Norway. In parallel, we will continue to develop our relations with Indigenous peoples of the Arctic and representatives of the most affected countries in the global south.
Our roadmap includes a 3-year research program to design curtains and moorings, decide on materials, and construct and test the technology to validate the curtains’ efficiency in restricting warm currents. The engineering process is being led by Entr of Aker Solutions, with tank testing and small scale outdoor testing being done by Entr and the Cambridge Centre for Climate Repair and advanced modeling by Alfred Wegener Institute.Â
We are also preparing deployment of mooring stations in the Pine Island Through in front of the Thwaites glacier in January 2026 with funding from Outlier Projects. This work is led by professor David Holland, NYU, and part of a series of UK, US, and South-Korean expeditions in 2026 and 2028. The first batch of data will be harvested in 2026, and the second in 2028. The study will give us new and valuable data on temperatures, salinity, velocity in the relevant location for a curtain in Antarctica. The novel data will feed into the engineering work that we are currently fundraising for and prepare us for future curtain deployment.
The data from the Amundsen sea will also provide a scientific basis for the design and materials for our first outdoor deployment, a 150 m long 40 m high curtain to test in a fjord in mainland Norway. The plan is to run the test in Ramfjorden, near Tromsø, in 2027. Measuring pre-curtain conditions in the fjord is ongoing in parallel with the process of the necessary licensing. This testing, planned in an Indigenous area, will engage local communities with traditional knowledge in the scientific monitoring before, during, and after the curtain installation.Â
In parallel, we will continue the academic work to improve the models and widen the community of scientists involved. We will increase the efforts towards building a coalition of countries willing to finance and provide a governance framework for curtain deployment.
The projects goal is to present the necessary basis for a decision to be made in 15 years with peer-reviewed science, bespoke and proven technological solutions, and a regulatory framework within the Antarctic Treaty System.
Right now:
Our leading team of experts is powered by philanthropic sources who want to bring this new technology to fruition. We are currently working on a fundraising campaign with the goal of raising 10M USD by the end of 2025. Investments go towards curtain engineering, field monitoring, and allowing our team members to continue developing and testing tools for the future.