The front portion of the doomsday glacier in Antarctica has an “alarming crack” that could lead to it breaking off in just five years, writes dailymail.co.uk.

Part of the Thwaites Glacier, it is the size of Florida and its melting accounts for about four percent of the global sea level rise.

New data, released on Monday, shows warming oceans is causing the Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf (TEIS) to lose its grip on the submarine shoal, or bank, that acts as a pinning point to hold it to the rest of the glacier - which is also causing cracks across its surface.

Satellite images presented at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union show several large, diagonal cracks extending across TEIS.

“If this floating ice shelf breaks apart, the Thwaites Glacier will accelerate and its contribution to sea level rise will increase by as much as 25%”, - the researchers shared during the presentation.