glaciology

Nature Geoscience, Published online: 25 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41561-026-01988-1 Dust derived from Antarctic sources measured in an ice core from the Allan Hills spanning the peak of the Last Interglacial suggests that the Ross Sea was probably open at the time, coincident with a reduction in the volume of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

After a fierce blizzard tore through the ice, missing cargo from a remote Antarctic station reappeared in a place that made recovery far more complicated.

Deep beneath Antarctica’s frozen surface, researchers uncovered something extraordinary. Hidden inside the ice was the oldest air ever recovered, remarkably well preserved.

Scientific Data, Published online: 23 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41597-026-07486-8 New inventory of glaciers in Tajikistan from 3 m PlanetScope imagery (2024): the Tajikistan Glacier Inventory (TGI)

Observing glacier mass changes is essential for understanding and projecting the impacts of climate change on sea-level rise, water resources and natural hazards, as well as providing data for developing, calibrating and validating glacier evolution models. The principal methods used to measure glacier mass changes — glaciological, geodetic (surface elevation differencing) and gravimetric — diffe…

Glacier energy-balance models offer mechanistic insights into glacier mass balance under a changing climate, yet their considerable data requirements hinder large-scale applications. Here we present the open-source Python Energy Balance model for Snow and Ice (PEBSI), which includes physically based albedo evolution using the Snow, Ice and Aerosol Radiative (SNICAR) model. PEBSI is calibrated and…

An Antarctic glacier just collapsed at record speed, stunning scientists and raising fears about the future of Earth’s ice. Antarctica’s Hektoria Glacier has undergone one of the fastest glacier retreats ever documented, surprising scientists with how quickly the ice disappeared. Between January 2022 and March 2023, the glacier retreated by about 25 kilometers (15 miles). [...]

Antarctica's Thwaites glacier, widely known as the "doomsday glacier," stands on the brink of a significant transformation as its eastern ice shelf prepares to detach. Scientists at the British Antarctic Survey have taken the unusual step of drafting a press release in advance to announce the shelf's eventual collapse. "Its final demise could happen suddenly, and to avoid being caught on the hop,…

Abstract The Upper Shuaiba project is located within the Lekhwair cluster of northwestern Oman. During the first two phases of the project, more than 400 wells have been delivered with more than 130 to follow. Well construction times for the long lateral wells have decreased significantly, from about 40 days to 15 days per well, during the duration of the project. The reservoir and overburden for…

Mass loss from the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica is already accelerating – and new simulations suggest that it could be shedding 180–200 billion tonnes of ice per year within 50 years. But the study points to something more consequential: the most severe future may depend not only on what the glacier does but on whether scientists train their models in ways that enable them to see it.

Abstract Non-destructive techniques such as the contact sponge method (CSM) and the Karsten tube have been developed to assess the water absorption properties of building materials during field measurements. In contrast, laboratory investigations typically rely on capillary rise tests (CR) on centimetric specimens imposing a one-dimensional water flow. Although the results obtained from these met…

Understanding the spatial heterogeneity beneath Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica, is vital to projecting its impact on future sea levels. Radar-echo sounding (RES) is commonly used to infer subglacial conditions, but these data can be challenging to interpret. We assess basal heterogeneity across Thwaites Glacier by comparing RES returns to a radar backscattering simulator for over 400 km of RES…

Something strange is happening under Antarctica’s frozen surface, and researchers say it could change the climate conversation.

Scientists estimate that Indonesia will lose its two remaining glaciers by 2030—a warning for glaciers around the world.