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.
Andean glaciers advanced during an acute period of climate change at the end of the last Ice Age, new research has found.
Earth Sciences
Sep 23, 2025
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21
At the end of the last ice age, billions of boulders and cobbles were left scattered over southern Scandinavia. Huge ice sheets had dragged the rocks from mountainous regions further north down to the Baltic Sea areas. When ...
Ecology
Sep 18, 2025
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21
Glaciers across High Mountain Asia are losing more than 22 gigatons of ice per year—the equivalent to nearly 9 million Olympic swimming pools, according to research from the University of Utah and Virginia Tech. The impact ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 30, 2025
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118
Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere vary naturally between ice ages and interglacial periods. A new study by researchers at the University of Gothenburg shows that an unexpectedly large proportion of carbon dioxide emissions ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 29, 2025
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141
An iconic Argentinian glacier, long thought one of the few on Earth to be relatively stable, is now undergoing its "most substantial retreat in the past century," according to new research.
Earth Sciences
Aug 10, 2025
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256
Glaciers carved the deep valleys of Banff, eroded Ontario to deposit the fertile soils of the Prairies, and continue to change Earth's surface. But how fast do glaciers sculpt the landscape?
Earth Sciences
Aug 7, 2025
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159
The Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina—often described as one of the most stable glaciers in Patagonia—is retreating far more rapidly than previously thought, according to a paper in Communications Earth & Environment. The ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 7, 2025
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41
A deadly wall of muddy water that swept away an Indian Himalayan town this week was likely caused by a rapidly melting glacier exacerbated by the rising effects of climate change, experts said on Thursday.
Environment
Aug 7, 2025
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33
Almost a quarter of the glaciers in one of the world's last pristine ecosystems have melted from climate change, according to new research from Monash University.
Earth Sciences
Aug 4, 2025
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54
The remains of landscapes thought to have formed when ancient rivers flowed across East Antarctica have been discovered—and could help predictions of future loss from the ice sheet.
Earth Sciences
Jul 11, 2025
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