Glaciation refers to the climatic and geophysical processes leading to the formation, expansion, and persistence of glaciers and ice sheets, and their subsequent sculpting of the Earth’s surface. It encompasses large-scale cooling, snow accumulation exceeding ablation, and dynamic ice flow driven by gravity and basal sliding. Glaciation cycles, governed primarily by orbital forcing (Milankovitch cycles), greenhouse gas concentrations, and feedbacks involving albedo and ocean circulation, produce glacial–interglacial variations in global climate. These events generate diagnostic landforms (e.g., moraines, drumlins, U-shaped valleys) and stratigraphic signatures, and they are central topics in Quaternary science, paleoclimatology, and Earth system modeling.
Our planet plunged into one of the most dramatic climate states in its long history, approximately 720–635 million years ago. During a period geologists call Snowball Earth, ice sheets crept from the poles all the way to ...
The glacier located near Sunlight Peak, Wyo., has been its icy self since the Yellowstone region's last major glaciation occurred some 20,000 years ago. The bulk of Sunlight's ice has remained ensconced in its northern Rocky ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 2, 2026
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Hike north on the Appalachian Trail and the scenery slowly transforms. Rugged, steep ridgelines in Tennessee and Virginia soften into the broad summits and smooth peaks of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. According to new research ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 24, 2026
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Researchers have identified a "tipping point" about 2.7 million years ago when global climate conditions switched from being relatively warm and stable to cold and chaotic, as continental ice sheets expanded in the Northern ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 19, 2026
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In the whole history of Earth's climate, few events are as extreme as those that geologists call "Snowball Earth."
Earth Sciences
Feb 18, 2026
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A new study shows that during the last two deglaciations, i.e., the transition from an ice age to the warm interglacial periods, meltwater from the Antarctic ice sheet intensified stratification in the Southern Ocean. The ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 14, 2026
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Scientists at the University of Southampton have uncovered evidence from ancient rocks that Earth's climate continued to fluctuate during its most extreme ice age—known as Snowball Earth. During the Cryogenian Period, between ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 5, 2026
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A study in Nature Geoscience reveals that changes in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) closely tracked marine algae growth in the Southern Ocean over previous glacial cycles, but not in the way scientists expected. The ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 2, 2026
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Should growing glacial lakes be used for energy production and water supply—or remain protected as ecologically valuable systems? A research team from the University of Potsdam, together with partners from the University ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 29, 2026
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As marine-terminating glaciers melt, the resulting freshwater is released at the seafloor, which mixes with salty seawater and influences circulation patterns. As the oceans warm, it's growing increasingly important to study ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 13, 2026
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