Science Advances, 1 January 2022 Warm water from the Atlantic Ocean fills the bottom of Greenland’s deepest fjords, where its major outlet glaciers meet the ocean. During the summer, this dense layer of ocean water mixes with glacial meltwater, sending a plume of warmer water to the surface. This process, known as “undercutting,” accelerates melting […]

Nature Geoscience, 13 January 2022 Scientists are observing unusually rapid retreat along the undersides of several glaciers in the Amundsen Sea of West Antarctica. Rising global temperatures send fast-moving currents of relatively warm seawater into cavities along the base of these glaciers and their adjoining ice shelves. These currents have accelerated the melting of ice […]

This jam-packed COP-26 Cryosphere Pavilion session looks at how effective management of wetlands can contribute to climate adaptation and mitigation, as well as conservation of biodiversity in the face of rapid permafrost thaw, including lake drainage as outlined above; and was organized by the CAFF (Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna) Working Group of the […]

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 4 January 2022 This global inventory provides a detailed map of the current size and stability of glacial lakes, in part to allow continual assessment of projected changes as the climate warms. 80% of these lakes in Antarctica, Greenland, Iceland, and glacial valley regions (such as the Alps) were found […]

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 11 January 2022 Arctic coasts have different geological compositions depending on their location, but their sensitivity to changes in temperature render them particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. When air temperature rises, ground ice melts and large areas of permafrost thaw along Arctic coastal regions, causing the land […]

Environmental Research Letters, 19 November 2021 An intense period of “catastrophic” lake drainage swept across northern Alaska from 2015-2019 during a period of increased summer warming. This set one of the highest levels of rapid lake drainage on record and broke a forty-year trend of decreasing drainage. Catastrophic drainage occurs when a lake on top […]

This COP-26 Cryosphere Pavilion session examines the future impact, and attempts at mitigation and adaptation in permafrost regions of the Arctic; with a presentation by Dr. Hugues Lantuit from the Alfred Wegener Institute and a panel discussion with youth researchers from impacted communities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNcXHAy0G2w

Eos, January 10 Pinning down the amount, rates and timing of future sea-level rise from Antarctica requires more targeted and integrated efforts to identify and understand the key processes affecting ice sheet melt. Many of these involve dynamic instabilities, as well as potentially irreversible behavior by the ice sheet. Such inter-disciplinary studies will not only […]

Environmental Research Letters, December 30 The winter flow of Russia’s massive Yenisei River – the largest river emptying into the Arctic Ocean – increased 80% between 1995 and 2019, unprecedented in the record going back to 1784. This acceleration may have begun as early as 1960. Previous studies have attributed such changes in wintertime freshwater […]

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, January 11 Rising global temperatures and intensifying heat waves have accelerated the thaw of permafrost across the Northern Hemisphere. When layers of permafrost thaw, the surrounding soil shifts and collapses, jeopardizing the infrastructure at the surface. This review summarizes findings from more than 160 papers, and concludes that the costs […]

For an explanation of the kind of modeling results and irreversible sea-level rise from Antarctica noted in the above Nature study, watch this COP-26 presentation by Dr. Robert DeConto of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyAlKGFD2kk

Nature Communications, November 15 At the end of the last Ice Age, there were eight periods in which elevated global temperatures caused large masses of icebergs to break off from Antarctica. During a majority of these periods, measurements of iceberg discharge show that the Antarctic Ice Sheet reached critical points of destabilization in ten years […]

Scientific Reports, December 20 During the past four decades, Himalayan glaciers have experienced a ten-fold increase in ice loss compared to their long-term average set over the past seven centuries. The Little Ice Age took place 400-700 years ago and represents the last period of widespread glacier expansion in the Himalaya. Since then, Himalayan glaciers […]

Over the coming weeks, the Cryosphere Capsules will feature videos of some of the best and most impactful side events that took place at the Cryosphere Pavilion during COP-26 in Glasgow. This week, especially in response to the research on potential collapse of an important Thwaites ice shelf (above) is an excellent explanation of why […]

American Geophysical Union, December 13 Previous scientific studies and reports may have underestimated the degree of warming in the Arctic resulting from greenhouse gas emissions to-date. The Arctic warms faster than any other region on Earth due to “Arctic amplification” — a phenomenon in which rising temperatures create feedback loops that increase the warming experienced […]