Dear Cryosphere Capsule readers, It has been a pleasure seeing many of you in Bonn this week during the annual UNFCCC Subsidiary Body meetings! Updates on the main cryosphere takeaways from both the recent ATCM/CEP conclusion in Kochi as well as a debrief on SB60 will be shared next Friday, especially as we look forward […]

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 20 May 2024 Seawater pulses from tides moving beneath the vulnerable Thwaites Glacier has created a 6-kilometer zone where warm water repeatedly flows underneath the ice, speeding up melting. This tidal pulsing has increased the glacier’s instability, and therefore the rate at which it contributes to global sea-level […]

Geophysical Research Letters, 20 May 2024 Antarctic sea ice reached historically low levels in 2023, with over 2 million square kilometers less ice than usual during winter. This study is one of the first to directly link fossil fuel emissions with that sharp decline in Antarctic sea ice. In terms of probability, the record-breaking low […]

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 21 May 2024 This review paper maps the global distribution of glacial lakes, consolidating historical trends of sudden outburst flooding to predict future hazards and associated risks in each region. More than 3,000 glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) have occurred during the past thousand years, particularly in High Mountain Asia, […]

The Arctic and Southern Oceans are under serious threat from warming, acidification, freshening, and ice loss. These changes are already visible today and have growing impacts on food webs, ecosystems, fisheries, and global weather patterns. This session draws attention to the societal and political impacts of fossil fuel emissions, emphasizing the importance of 1.5°C. Speakers […]

AGU Journals: Earth’s Future, 26 April 2024 The iconic East Rongbuk Glacier on Mount Everest’s north slope might lose two-thirds of its ice volume by the end of the century under high emissions, but global temperatures remaining below 1.5°C could allow more than half of its ice to survive past 2100. Glaciers in the Rongbuk […]

Scientific Reports, 9 May 2024 Small mountain glaciers in Alaska release high levels of methane gas in their meltwater runoff, unleashing previously frozen methane stores as the ice retreats. Similar studies have documented such methane release from glaciers across Greenland, Svalbard, and Iceland; adding to this knowledge base, new observations make clear that retreating small […]

Dr. Gabrielle Kleber, an Early Career Scientist at the COP28 Cryosphere Pavilion, published a major paper in July 2023 on methane emissions from groundwaters that are released as glaciers retreat. She helped identify a positive feedback loop not currently considered in climate models, in which climate-driven glacial melt releases ancient methane in the high Arctic, […]

Nature Communications, 23 April 2024 Weakened deep ocean mixing and sea ice loss could tip currently stable regions of West Antarctica across a threshold into extensive retreat for thousands of years, and this outcome can only be avoided with steep cuts in carbon emissions. This study unravels past ice sheet behavior to predict how it […]

Science Advances, 17 April 24 Researchers have identified a new positive feedback loop that intensifies ice shelf loss, suggesting that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is more vulnerable to temperature rise than previously expected. The feedback loop is self-reinforcing: increased ice shelf melting produces more freshwater, strengthening the undercurrent transporting warm water toward the ice […]

Melting ice has long been a clear visual of our planet’s health. This event addressed the need for effective climate change education policies to increase cryosphere literacy, and showcased successful initiatives that equip youth with the tools they need to mitigate the feeling of eco-anxiety and empower them to become agents of change for a […]

Nature Communications, 15 April 2024 The level of future fossil fuel emissions will have a huge impact on whether “subsea” permafrost submerged along Arctic coastlines enters irreversible thaw, emitting its stored carbon, or remains fixed in its current frozen state. Continued high emissions along the lines of today’s will trigger rapid, irreversible acceleration of subsea […]

The Cryosphere, 10 April 2024 Antarctica’s coastline is fringed with sea ice that buttresses large glaciers around the continent, but increasing exposure to large ocean waves in a warming climate could remove this protective barrier. In the Antarctic Peninsula, “land-fast” sea ice anchored to the Larsen B coast for over a decade broke away in […]

The Cryosphere, 22 March 2024 The floating portion (“ice tongue”) of Greenland’s critical 79° North glacier has thinned by one-third over the past three decades, with extremely high melt rates where land-based ice meets the ocean. Authors reveal how rising air temperatures produce meltwater lakes that have carved huge drainage channels through the ice into […]

The East Antarctic Ice Sheet stores the equivalent of 52 meters of sea-level rise, more than four times greater than both Greenland and West Antarctica combined. Although often viewed as less vulnerable to global warming, East Antarctica could increase global sea-level rise by several meters over the next few centuries if emissions remain on their […]