Environmental Research, 30 April 2026
Central Asia’s glaciers experienced their most severe mass loss year on record in 2025, with nearly 2% of the region’s total glacier volume disappearing. About two-thirds of large glaciers in the region (around 4,000 in total) experienced their worst year of ice loss since measurements began. This extreme melt was driven mainly by unusually warm spring and summer conditions, an early start to the melting season, and less snowfall than usual. With snow disappearing earlier in the year, darker ice surfaces were exposed for longer periods, causing more sunlight to be absorbed and speeding up further melting in a feedback loop. Long-term records and reconstructions going back to the 1950s show that 2025 was far outside the range of normal year-to-year variability and falls within a broader trend of increasing glacier loss across the region.
Nature Communications, 29 May 2026 The soils of Arctic river deltas store large amounts of…
Scientific Reports, 27 May 2026 Rising global temperatures increase the exposure of communities and infrastructure…
Global Environmental Change, 20 May 2026 In the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, reducing greenhouse gas emissions could…
Nature Sustainability, 4 May 2026 Sediment records from the Last Inter-Glacial (LIG) period suggest that…
NPJ Climate and Atmospheric Science, 20 May 2026 Human-caused warming has been the primary driver…
Nature Communications, 27 May 2026 Sudden drainage of meltwater lakes through water-filled fractures can locally…