glaciology

Nature Geoscience, Published online: 05 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41561-026-01976-5 Methane in modern subglacial meltwater coming from the western Greenland Ice Sheet largely dates back to the period following the Holocene Thermal Maximum, when a smaller ice sheet allowed organic matter accumulation and biological methane production after ice readvance.

Collapsing ice in the Khumbu Icefall buried two climbers on May 5, as more than 100 people ascended the glacier to being acclimatization roundson the mountain The post Collapsing Ice on Mount Everest Injured Two Climbers and Prompted a Dramatic Rescue appeared first on Outside Online .

Kaplan studies the ways ice sheets, mountain glaciers, climates and landscapes changed in the past.

Drifting snow driven by strong winds promotes the formation of wind-deposited landforms (sharp, irregular ridges) increasing the surface roughness. Credit: Zheng et al. [2026] , Figure 11b

When and where did mountains host their largest glaciers? Driven by this question, an interdisciplinary group of researchers developed GLACIMONTIS, a global geodatabase of reconstructed mountain paleoglaciers at the Last Glacial Maximum.

To say something moves at a glacial pace is to imply sluggish, unhurried change. But what transpired over the course of 15 months at Antarctica's Hektoria Glacier was uncharacteristically quick. Between January 2022 and March 2023, the glacier lost about 25 kilometers (15 miles) in length. That included a two-month period in which the terminus retreated more than 8 kilometers (5 miles)--the highe…

We know they’re there, we just don’t know how deep they are The post Uncovering Hidden Martian Glaciers With Drones appeared first on Nautilus .

After recovering ice that dates back 6 million years, Sarah Shackleton hopes to dig deeper into Earth’s history from a remote Antarctic moraine

Rapid warming of the Arctic has accelerated the mass loss of snow and ice. The glacier equilibrium line altitude (ELA) is a suitable location for monitoring the surface energy balance (SEB) and surface mass balance (SMB). This study presents SEB and SMB variations during 2012–2022 around the ELA on the Qaanaaq Ice Cap in northwest Greenland. The SMB was analyzed using SEB analysis and the surface…

The Icefall Doctors have finished the most dangerous job in mountaineering. Here is what this year’s path to the summit looks like. The post Everest’s Khumbu Icefall Is Open: What to Know About the 2026 Route appeared first on Outside Online .

Geothermal heat flow is an important control on the dynamics of glaciers and ice sheets. In Greenland however, the exact magnitude and distribution of geothermal heat flow under the ice sheet is largely unknown as only few direct measurements exist at the locations of the deep ice cores. For this reason, several studies have attempted to constrain geothermal heat flow under the ice sheet through …

A flying drone filmed the looming tower of ice that threatens the route through the Khumbu Icefall. The serac has prevented officials from opening Mount Everest to climbers. The post This Mount Everest Drone Video Shows the Deadly Serac in the Khumbu Icefall appeared first on Outside Online .

Credit: Caltech/GLASS Project BY ANDREW MOSEMAN ‍ ‍ One of Caltech’s most far-flung examples of field work is beginning to give us a better picture of how Antarctica’s ice sheets are changing, a phenomenon having an enormous impact on sea level rise. The video above takes you to the frozen continent to meet the researchers and see their methods. The GLASS project (Grounding zone L…

dc.title: Paleo-reconstruction of Greenland ice sheet dynamics over the Holocene via Bayesian inversion dc.description.abstract: Ice sheets are grounded ice masses of continental size, with areas greater than 50,000 km². The second-largest of the two contemporary ice sheets, Greenland, contributes around 15% to the Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) rise budget. It holds a water volume equivalent to a …

Ice flowing through mountainous topography at Morteratsch Glacier in Switzerland. Credit: Ann Rowan

Scientists drilling deep beneath Greenland’s ice have uncovered a startling clue about its past—and future. Evidence shows that the Prudhoe Dome, a major high point of the ice sheet, completely melted around 7,000 years ago during a relatively mild natural warming period. That means this supposedly stable ice cap is far more fragile than once thought, raising concerns that today’s human-driven wa…

Nature Communications, Published online: 17 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-72192-3 Author Correction: Ocean heat forced West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat after the Last Glacial Maximum

To solve this, I first used the units to work out that a= m* a/m, i.e. t=z/λ. This would allow you to determine the time duration within an interval section by section and then add this to the previous ones to obtain the age of the respective layer. However, this would require a constant... Read more

A hidden threat is emerging in the world’s glaciers: while most are shrinking, a rare group known as “surging glaciers” can suddenly accelerate, unleashing powerful and sometimes destructive events. Scientists have identified over 3,100 of these glaciers worldwide, with many clustered in high-risk regions like the Arctic and the Karakoram Mountains, where communities lie directly in their path.