The ice shelf on Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier lost about one-fifth of its area from 2017 to 2020, mostly in three dramatic breaks. The timelapse video incorporates satellite images from January 2015 to March 2020. For most of the first two years, the satellite took high-resolution images every 12 days; then for more than […]
The Antarctic ice sheet was even more unstable in the past than previously thought, and at times possibly came close to collapse, new research suggests. The findings raise concerns that, in a warmer climate, exposing the land underneath the ice sheet as it retreats will increase rainfall on Antarctica, and this could trigger processes that […]
“Faster ice melting under global warming was the most likely cause of the directional change of the polar drift in the 1990s.” Since 1980, the planet’s north and south poles have moved roughly four meters in distance, and new research shows that shifts in the Earth’s rotational axis have accelerated since the 1990s as a […]
The loss of glaciers worldwide enhances the breakdown of complex carbon molecules in rivers, potentially contributing further to climate change. University of Alaska Southeast Professor of Environmental Science Eran Hood was part of an international research team led by the University of Leeds that has for the first time linked glacier-fed mountain rivers with higher […]
“This green line looks like the death of permafrost — it’s flatlining,” Louise Farquharson said to an audience of a few dozen scientists. Her quiet voice came through speakers over the muffled clicking of keyboards and occasional coughs in a dimly lit room at the 2019 American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco. […]
Sea ice in the Bering Sea shrank to its lowest levels in recorded history in 2018, profoundly affecting northwest Alaska residents who depend on marine resources for food, cash and culture, according to a new peer-reviewed study. “This is an extreme event with immediate and long-lasting repercussions. It’s indicative of very rapid change in the […]
When my boss, Sue Mitchell, was in Tibet recently, she asked a local guide if the glaciers there were shrinking. The guide told her no, the glaciers were fine. When she returned to Alaska, Mitchell asked the same question of glaciologist Martin Truffer, who also works at UAF’s Geophysical Institute. He said no, Himalaya glaciers […]
Video: Guðfinna Aðalgeirsdóttir, also known as Tolly, a glaciologist and university professor from Iceland, recommends people watch Swedish high-school student Greta Thunberg’s presentation. Youtube Icelanders will soon install a plaque they hope people will read, long after those who bolted it to a mountain are dead. Near a withering glacier, the sign reads: […]
Image: The terminus of LeConte Glacier lies in an ocean bay about 25 miles east of Petersburg in Southeast Alaska. Photo by Roman Motyka LeConte Glacier near Petersburg is the farthest-south glacier that spills into the sea on this side of the equator. Where that ice tongue dips into salty water, scientists recently measured […]