Breakdown of El glaciar se está derritiendo muy rápido, lo cual es terrible.
ser
to be
rápido
fast
muy
very
estar
to be (location/state)
terrible
terrible
derretirse
to melt (ice, snow, wax)
el glaciar
the glacier
lo cual
which (referring to a preceding idea)
Questions & Answers about El glaciar se está derritiendo muy rápido, lo cual es terrible.
Why do we use lo cual here instead of el cual or que?
Lo cual is a neuter relative pronoun that refers back to an entire preceding idea—in this case, the fact that the glacier is melting fast. If you used el cual, it would refer directly to the masculine noun el glaciar, changing the meaning to imply the glacier itself is a terrible thing, rather than the melting process. You cannot use a simple que after a comma to refer back to a whole clause.
Could I use lo que instead of lo cual in this sentence?
Yes, absolutely. Both lo cual and lo que can refer back to an immediately preceding clause. The difference is mostly stylistic: lo cual sounds a bit more formal or written, while lo que is extremely common in everyday speech. Just remember that lo cual must always follow the idea it refers to, whereas lo que can also be used to start a new sentence (for example, meaning "What is terrible is...").
Why is the pronoun se needed in se está derritiendo?
We use the pronominal verb derretirse when something melts or undergoes the process of melting on its own (intransitive). If you dropped the se and just said está derritiendo, the sentence would feel incomplete because non-reflexive derretir means to melt something else (like the sun melting the ice).
Could the se go somewhere else in the sentence?
Yes. When using a continuous tense (the verb estar plus a gerund ending in -iendo or -ando), the pronoun can go either right before the conjugated verb, as seen here with se está derritiendo, or attached to the end of the gerund. If you attach it, you must add an accent mark to maintain the natural stress: está derritiéndose.
Why does the spelling change to derritiendo instead of derretiendo?
The infinitive is derretir, but this verb has a stem change from "e" to "i". For verbs ending in -ir that have a stem change in the present tense, that vowel change also carries over into the gerund (the -iendo form). You will recognize this same pattern in other common verbs, such as pedir becoming pidiendo and decir becoming diciendo.
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