Glaciology is the scientific discipline devoted to the study of snow, ice, and glaciers as physical systems within the cryosphere. It examines the formation, metamorphism, and rheology of ice, the mass balance and dynamics of glaciers and ice sheets, and their interactions with atmosphere, oceans, lithosphere, and climate. Glaciological research employs field observations, remote sensing, geophysical surveying, ice-core analysis, and numerical modeling to quantify processes such as ice flow, basal sliding, calving, and meltwater production. The field is central to understanding sea-level change, paleoclimate reconstruction, freshwater resources, and feedbacks in the global climate system.
According to the 35th annual State of the Climate report, greenhouse gas concentrations, the global temperature across land and oceans, global sea level, and ocean heat content all reached record highs in 2024, and glaciers ...
Environment
Aug 14, 2025
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Each summer in the mountains above Juneau, Alaska, meltwater from the massive Mendenhall Glacier flows into mountain lakes and into the Mendenhall River, which runs through town.
Environment
Aug 14, 2025
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An international team of researchers led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst has tracked changes in more than 114,000 rivers in High Mountain Asia over a 15-year period. The paper, published in AGU Advances, reported ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 13, 2025
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As glaciers melt, huge chunks of ice break free and splash into the sea, generating tsunami-sized waves and leaving behind a powerful wake as they drift away. This process, called calving, is important for researchers to ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 13, 2025
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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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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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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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On the slopes of Martian mountains and craters clings what appears to be flowing honey, coated in dust and frozen in time. In reality, these features are incredibly slow-moving glaciers, and their contents were once thought ...
Astrobiology
Jul 24, 2025
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In a small, refrigerated room at a Brussels university, parka-wearing scientists chop up Antarctic ice cores tens of thousands of years old in search of clues to our planet's changing climate.
Environment
Jul 18, 2025
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Glaciers hold layers of history preserved in ice, offering unique insights into Earth's past that can also help us interpret the future. Trapped amidst the frozen water are microscopic deposits of dust, pollen, and even pollutants ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 16, 2025
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