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Abstract The rapidly changing Thwaites Ice Shelf is crucial for understanding ice‐shelf dynamical processes and their implications for sea‐level rise from Antarctica. Fractures, particularly their vertical structure, are key to ice‐shelf structural integrity but remain poorly measured. To address this, we developed a fracture‐characterization workflow using ICESat‐2 ATL03 geolocated photon heights, producing the first time‐series vertical measurements of fractures across Thwaites from 2018 to 2024. We introduced the fracture depth/freeboard ratio as a normalized metric to quantify vertical fracture extent, serving as an indicator of structural damage. This metric enabled us to track fracture evolution in both the eastern ice shelf and western glacier tongue. In the eastern section, fracturing intensified along the northwestern shear zone and near the grounding line, in a positive feedback loop between enhanced fracturing and accelerated flow. The western section maintained an active rift formation zone about 15 km downstream of the historical grounding line. Flow velocity changes in this section were primarily confined to the unconstrained downstream portion, exhibiting an overall deceleration trend, while the upstream area remained stable. This contrast highlights the role of lateral margin conditions in governing ice‐shelf fracture and flow behavior. Changes in the eastern section showed some correspondence with warm winter air temperatures, reduced sea ice, and persistent warm ocean anomalies at shallower depths, suggesting that atmosphere‐sea ice‐ocean interactions influence ice‐shelf structural integrity through basal processes. Future research should integrate satellite‐derived fracture observations with numerical models of ice fracture and flow to better capture the dynamics of ice‐shelf weakening and retreat. 

Abstract Rapid retreat of the Larsen A and B ice shelves has provided important clues about the ice shelf destabilization processes. The Larsen C Ice Shelf, the largest remaining ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula, may also be vulnerable to future collapse in a warming climate. Here, we utilize multisource satellite images collected over 1963–2020 to derive multidecadal time series of ice front, flow velocities, and critical rift features over Larsen C, with the aim of understanding the controls on its retreat. We complement these observations with modeling experiments using the Ice‐sheet and Sea‐level System Model to examine how front geometry conditions and mechanical weakening due to rifts affect ice shelf dynamics. Over the past six decades, Larsen C lost over 20% of its area, dominated by rift‐induced tabular iceberg calving. The Bawden Ice Rise and Gipps Ice Rise are critical areas for rift formation, through their impact on the longitudinal deviatoric stress field. Mechanical weakening around Gipps Ice Rise is found to be an important control on localized flow acceleration and the propagation of two rifts that caused a major calving event in 2017. Capturing the time‐varying effects of rifts on ice rigidity in ice shelf models is essential for making realistic predictions of ice shelf flow dynamics and instability. In the context of the Larsen A and Larsen B collapses, we infer a chronology of destabilization processes for embayment‐confined ice shelves, which provides a useful framework for understanding the historical and future destabilization of Antarctic ice shelves.