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.
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts say.
Environment
May 31, 2025
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A cascade of events in the Swiss Alps led to the dramatic collapse of the Birch glacier, wiping out Blatten village in the valley below, glaciologists and geoscientists told AFP on Friday.
Environment
May 31, 2025
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In an important contribution from the social sciences, Rice University anthropologists Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer examine the societal consequences of global glacier loss in a commentary published today in Science.
Environment
May 29, 2025
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A new study with ETH Zurich finds that if global warming exceeds the Paris Climate Agreement targets, the non-polar glacier mass will diminish significantly. However, if warming is limited to 1.5°C, at least 54% could be ...
Earth Sciences
May 29, 2025
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New research reveals mountain glaciers across the globe will not recover for centuries—even if human intervention cools the planet back to the 1.5°C limit, having exceeded it.
Earth Sciences
May 19, 2025
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A team of researchers led by Niccolò Maffezzoli, "Marie Curie" fellow at Ca' Foscari University of Venice and the University of California, Irvine, and an associate member of the Institute of Polar Sciences of the National ...
Earth Sciences
May 15, 2025
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30
Paul Wilcox, a geologist at the University of Innsbruck, has discovered the first land-based evidence of meltwater pulses from the Cordilleran Ice Sheet during the last ice age, about 20,000 years ago. The age of the cave ...
Earth Sciences
May 14, 2025
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The amount of snow covering Swiss glaciers at the end of the winter this year was 13% below the 2010-2020 average, said a group of glacier monitoring experts on Monday.
Environment
May 12, 2025
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32
Hidden beneath the Antarctic ice lies a system of lakes and watercourses. A research team, including ETH researchers, has for the first time directly observed the subglacial streams of West Antarctica. Their study, published ...
Earth Sciences
May 12, 2025
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One chilly morning this past December, nine women awoke to the sight of a glacier looming before them, glowing orange in the rising sun. These scientists had spent their lives studying the cryosphere—the frozen part of Earth—but ...
Earth Sciences
May 9, 2025
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