Latest Glacier Stories
A new study has found that the glaciers in the French Alps have lost a quarter of their area in the past 40 years. Marie Gardent, from the University of Savoie, and colleagues assessed about 600 glaciers in broad areas incorporating the Ecrins, Belledonne, Vanoise, Ubaye and Grande Rousse Arves massifs. The team used map archives, past satellite imagery and aerial photographs to assess the areas. Manual inspection was used to ensure that the automatic delineation methods used in the...
Accelerated melting of two fast-moving outlet glaciers that drain Antarctic ice into the Amundsen Sea Embayment is likely the result, in part, of an increase in sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean, according to new University of Washington research. Higher-than-normal sea-level pressure north of the Amundsen Sea sets up westerly winds that push surface water away from the glaciers and allow warmer deep water to rise to the surface under the edges of the glaciers, said...
Findings from the most comprehensive assessment to date on climate change, snow and glacier melt in Asia's mountainous Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region -- site of Mount Everest and many of the world's tallest peaks -- highlight the region's extreme vulnerability to climate change, as rising temperatures disturb the balance of snow, ice and water, threatening millions of mountain people and 1.3 billion people living downstream in Asia's major river basins. The findings, published in three...
Arctic air temperatures were approximately 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit higher in 2011 than the baseline number for the previous three decades, and the region continues to lose ice sheet and glacier mass at a "dramatic" rate, according to a new report released by an international team of scientists Thursday. The 2011 Arctic Report Card, which was compiled by a team of 121 scientists from 14 different countries, measures the status of the area in five different categories: atmosphere, sea ice and...
[ Watch the Video ] An international team of researchers funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) will travel next month to one of Antarctica's most active, remote and harsh spots to determine how changes in the waters circulating under an active ice sheet are causing a glacier to accelerate and drain into the sea. The science expedition will be the most extensive ever deployed to Pine Island Glacier. It is the area of the ice-covered continent that concerns scientists...
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An international team of researchers funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) will travel next month to one of Antarctica's most active, remote and harsh spots to determine how changes in the waters circulating under an active ice sheet are causing a glacier to accelerate and drain into the sea. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The science expedition will be the most extensive ever deployed to...
Researchers said on Wednesday that an Antarctic glacier with the potential to raise global sea levels could speed up its retreat within 20 years. Columbia University researchers said the Thwaites Glacier is expected to speed up once it detaches from an underwater ridge it is currently attached too. The ridge appears to be slowing the glacier's slide into the sea, but the finding says the glacier is losing its grip on a previously unknown ridge. The researcher said this explains why...
Significant increases in annual temperatures are having a devastating effect on glaciers in the mountainous regions of south-western China, potentially affecting natural habitats, tourism and wider economic development. In a study published today, 25 October 2011, in IOP Publishing's Environmental Research Letters, scientists examined data from 111 weather stations across south-western China and have shown that temperature patterns were consistent with warming, at a statistically...
Glacial Melt Cycle Could Become Self-Amplifying, Making it Difficult to Halt The Greenland ice sheet can experience extreme melting even when temperatures don’t hit record highs, according to a new analysis by Dr. Marco Tedesco, assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at The City College of New York. His findings suggest that glaciers could undergo a self-amplifying cycle of melting and warming that would be difficult to halt. “We are finding that...
Rapid climate change could soon leave Mount Everest ascenders with an ice-free climb, according to climbers and custodians of the world’s tallest mountain. An international mission, funded by the US and led by the Mountain Institute, was launched to gauge the effects of climate change in the Himalayas. What they discovered was that Mount Everest’s southern approach was losing its ice cover. Meeting in Katmandu to work out practical solutions from the threat of catastrophic...
Latest Glacier Reference Libraries
Glacier National Park is located in the American state of Montana, south of the Canadian borders of British Columbia and Alberta. The park contains one million acres of varying landscape with a wide range of plant and animal life. It holds two mountain ranges, over 130 discovered and named lakes, and 16,000 square miles of protected unspoiled ecosystem known as the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem. The history of human presence in the Glacier National Park area is thought to begin about...
Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is located in the Alaska panhandle, west of the city of Juneau. The establishment of the park first began in 1925, when Calvin Coolidge signed the bill that would make the Glacier Bay area a national monument. After an expansion occurred in 1978 by President Jimmy Carter, the park increased in size by 523,000 acres under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). This act helped expand the park again in 1980, while it was in the...
