Proceedings from the National Academy of Sciences, 8 March 2022 Surface meltwater heats up as it passes down through cracks and fractures in the Greenland Ice Sheet – which means that some areas at the base of the ice sheet are melting up to 100 times faster than previously estimated. Falling meltwater carries an immense […]

Geophysical Research Letters, 24 January 2022 A patch of unusually cold water in the North Atlantic Ocean – nicknamed the “Blue Blob” – has temporarily slowed the melting of Iceland’s glaciers since 2011. This regional cooling was caused by meltwater pouring off the Greenland ice sheet and Arctic glaciers, as well as the slowing of […]

For a look at ice sheet behavior over the past several million years, in response to CO2 and warming levels at or only slightly above today’s levels, watch this stellar COP-26 presentation by two giants of the paleo ice sheet field: Dr. Julie Brigham-Grette, University of Massachusetts Amherst and former chair of the U.S. Polar […]

Current Biology, 14 February 2022 Antarctica’s two native flowering plants – pearlwort and hairgrass – have experienced unprecedented growth over the past decade as a result of rising air temperatures, with longer and wetter summers. These warm summer months also reduce the amount of ice covering the soil. In the South Orkney Islands of Antarctica, […]

The Cryosphere, 8 February 2022 New modeling suggests that warm seawater can slip underneath grounded ice sheets — ice resting on land or bedrock — and travel tens of kilometers inland beneath the grounded ice. When the ground below the ice is flat or slopes downward and is impermeable, such as bedrock; seawater can mix […]

Geology, 11 February 2022 New research resolves a long-standing discrepancy between marine records from the Ross Sea, which indicate complete ice sheet loss in that region during interglacials (warmer periods, with CO2 around 280ppm); versus land records that show persistent cold, sub-freezing conditions which should have maintained the ice sheet. This study resolved this discrepancy […]

This fascinating COP-26 session delves into the factors causing glacier loss and downstream impacts, as well as discussing the similarities and differences in behavior between very large glaciers (often near the margins of ice sheets) and the ice sheets themselves. It includes keynote presentations by Dr. Matthias Huss, ETH-Zurich, Switzerland and Dr. John Pomeroy, Global […]

NPJ Climate and Atmospheric Science, 3 February 2022 The South Col Glacier next to the peak of Mount Everest has lost 55 meters of thickness in the last 25 years. The layers of snow and ice covering the surface of this glacier took more than 2,000 years to accumulate, but they are now melting and […]

Remote Sensing of Environment, 7 January 2022 The compounding effects of climate change are particularly evident in Western Canada, where this detailed study of glaciers in Alberta and British Columbia found that ice loss was seven times faster between 2011-2020 than between 1984-2010. This extreme loss was even more pronounced for small and low-altitude glaciers […]

Nature Geoscience, 7 February 2022 Widespread media coverage of this study unfortunately has resulted in a mischaracterization of its main conclusions, by claiming that the world’s glaciers “hold 20% less ice than previously estimated.” In reality, their estimate of global glacier volume excludes huge areas of Antarctica that were included in previous estimates. The ice […]

For more on current losses and future projections for the world’s glaciers and snowpack, and impacts on water resources, watch this great overview by Dr. Regine Hock, IPCC Coordinating Lead Author (SROCC) and Professor at the University of Oslo and the University of Alaska. https://youtu.be/LBETRQXYD9E?list=PL7jYwbz8AZmjj2sl72pp7bT4JaLHiN0C0

Scientific Reports, 10 January 2022 Rising global temperatures have shifted westerly winds closer to the Antarctic continent, sending warm eddies of water into cavities at the base of Antarctica’s ice sheets, and accelerating the flow of meltwater into the ocean. During the past 20 years, the flow of Antarctic meltwater into the Southern Ocean has […]

The Cryosphere, 25 January 2022 Alaska and northwestern Canada contain more than 27,000 glaciers, which account for the second-largest area of ice in the world outside of Greenland and Antarctica. “Ice-marginal” lakes form along the edges of these glaciers when their outflow is dammed by either ice or sediment deposits. Glacial lakes with different types […]

Nature, 19 January 2022 Svalbard contains more than one thousand glaciers located across a “climate gradient” – distinct geographical regions that experience different temperature and precipitation levels. While studies often attempt to predict the response of glaciers to future warming by examining glacier behavior patterns from a few glaciers over a long period of time, […]

In keeping with the contrasting Greenland and Antarctica studies in this week’s Capsules, this COP-26 session explains the differences between melting and potential sea-level rise rates from Earth’s two major ice sheets of Greenland (7 meters of potential sea-level rise) and Antarctica (about 58 meters, or 190 feet); with Dr. Julie Brigham-Grette of University of […]