Latest Moraine Stories
The landform known as a drumlin, created when the ice advanced during the Ice Age, can also be produced by today's glaciers. This discovery, made by researchers from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, has just been published in the scientific journal Geology.Drumlins generally consist of an accumulation of glacial debris "“ till "“ and are found in areas that were covered by ice sheet. As the ice advanced, it moved rocks, gravel and sand and created tear-shaped raised ridges running...
A new study that reports precise ages for glacial moraines in southern Peru links climate swings in the tropics to those of Europe and North America during the Little Ice Age approximately 150 to 350 years ago. The study, published this week in the journal Science, "brings us one step closer to understanding global-scale patterns of glacier activity and climate during the Little Ice Age," says lead author Joe Licciardi, associate professor of Earth sciences at the University of New...
 The U.S. Geological Survey has released the results of a long-term study of key glaciers in western North America, reporting this month that glacial shrinkage is rapid and accelerating and a result of climate change. University of Illinois geologist William Shilts spent nearly two decades studying glaciers on Bylot Island, an uninhabited island about 300 miles southwest of Thule, Greenland. He, his students and other geologists who followed in his footsteps have chronicled the decline of...
According to a paper in this week's issue of the journal Science, the vast majority of the world's glaciers are retreating as the planet gets warmer. For the last 7,000 years, New Zealand's largest glaciers have moved out of step with glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere, showing strong regional variations in climate, the paper reported. "This research should provide much more accurate reconstructions of glacial advances worldwide, allowing us in turn to make climate models more...
A melting glacier and flash flooding fears at a Canadian park on Baffin Island forced officials to evacuate tourists and declare much of the area off-limits. The Auyuittuq National Park on the island's northeast coast recently witnessed record-breaking warmth and substantial amounts of rain, Parks Canada spokeswoman Pauline Scott told Canwest News Service. This summer's events are beyond anything we're used to, Scott said from Iqualuit, Nunavut. This is no doubt a result of climate change....
By Thomas Gnau Staff Writer MORAINE -- Facing an impending plant closure, 786 hourly workers at General Motors Corp.'s Moraine plant have taken payment to leave the automaker's payroll, union officials said Wednesday, June 18. Taking buyout or early retirement options GM offered earlier this year are 662 production employees and 124 skilled trade employees, said John Harlow, shop chairman of the International Union of Electronic Workers-Communication Workers of America Local 798, which...
ESA -- This image, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, shows flow features most likely formed by glaciers or 'block' glaciers.This unusual 'hourglass'-shaped structure is located in Promethei Terra at the eastern rim of the Hellas Basin, at about latitude 38º South and longitude 104º East. A so-called 'block' glacier, an ice stream with a large amount of scree (small rocks of assorted sizes), flowed from a flank of the massif into a...
