https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. As glaciers around the world continue to shrink and disappear, they are drawing more visitors than ever, not only for their beauty but for what they have come to represent in an era of climate change. A new study co-authored by Rice University anthropologist Cymene Howe examines this phenomenon, showing how melting glaciers have become powerful destinations for tourism, sites of collective grief and symbols of political meaning even as their loss threatens the communities that depend on them. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-glaciers-visitors-climate.html Earth Sciences Mon, 09 Feb 2026 11:21:33 EST news689858462 When and how quickly can ecosystems "tip" and how will they develop in the future? Researchers from the University of Potsdam, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and the Technical University of Munich have developed a new method for measuring how close an ecosystem is to a catastrophic tipping point. They are applying their findings to predict glacier surges, as well as rapid changes in other ecosystems. They have now published their study in Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-glacier-surges-ecological.html Earth Sciences Fri, 06 Feb 2026 18:30:01 EST news689608546 A recent satellite-based study has uncovered alarming declines in groundwater storage across High Mountain Asia (HMA), widely known as the "Asian Water Tower." This critical water source, which sustains agricultural irrigation, urban water supplies and ecological security for hundreds of millions of people in more than a dozen downstream countries, is depleting at a staggering rate of approximately 24.2 billion tons per year. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-satellite-reveals-billion-ton-annual.html Earth Sciences Sun, 01 Feb 2026 17:30:01 EST news689002219 Thousands of glaciers will vanish each year in the coming decades, leaving only a fraction standing by the end of the century unless global warming is curbed, a study showed on Monday. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-glacier-loss-year-2050s.html Earth Sciences Sun, 28 Dec 2025 12:00:02 EST news685021898 "We cannot negotiate with the melting point of ice." That's the message from more than 50 leading scientists who study Earth's frozen regions, published in the latest annual State of the Cryosphere report. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-earth-frozen-regions-climate-politicians.html Environment Thu, 18 Dec 2025 10:49:36 EST news685277342 Glaciers are melting worldwide. In some regions, they could even disappear completely. Looking at the number of glaciers disappearing, the Alps could reach their peak loss rate as early as 2033 to 2041. Depending on how sharply the planet warms, this period may mark a time when more glaciers vanish than ever before. Worldwide, the peak glacier loss rate will occur about ten years later and could rise from 2,000 to 4,000 glaciers lost each year. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-alps-glaciers-decade.html Earth Sciences Mon, 15 Dec 2025 11:00:01 EST news684766981 The speed at which glaciers move changes predictably each year, according to the first-ever global map of how glacier and ice sheet speeds vary with the seasons. Knowing this yearly rhythm could help us better predict sea-level rise driven by long-term climate change. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-glaciers-global-ice-movement.html Earth Sciences Thu, 04 Dec 2025 09:50:01 EST news684064049 An international research team has shown that avalanches are crucial to the survival of many glaciers worldwide. The study aims to contribute to better predictions of water resources and natural hazards in the context of global warming. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-avalanches-key-importance-glaciers-worldwide.html Earth Sciences Wed, 26 Nov 2025 13:00:36 EST news683384401 What do you picture when you think about climate change? For many of us, it is the same set of dramatic images: melting glaciers, sinking landforms, rising seas or extreme weather. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-apocalyptic-images-glaciers-islands-wont.html Environment Wed, 12 Nov 2025 12:05:04 EST news682171502 Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica—often called the "Doomsday Glacier"—is one of the fastest-changing ice–ocean systems on Earth, and its future remains a major uncertainty in global sea-level rise projections. One of its floating extensions, the Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf (TEIS), is partially confined and anchored by a pinning point at its northern terminus. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-antarctic-doomsday-glacier-ice-shelf.html Earth Sciences Fri, 07 Nov 2025 09:42:33 EST news681730949 A twin-prop Chinook helicopter shatters the calm of the Dutch countryside, hovering just meters from a canal before dumping four huge sandbags into the water: welcome to Operation Cloudburst. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-cloudburst-dutch.html Environment Fri, 07 Nov 2025 04:42:10 EST news681712923 Pink granite boulders scattered across the dark volcanic peaks of the Hudson Mountains in West Antarctica, have revealed the presence of a vast buried granite body—almost 100 km across and 7 km thick, about half the size of Wales in the UK—beneath Pine Island Glacier. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-hidden-giant-granite-beneath-west.html Earth Sciences Wed, 22 Oct 2025 14:20:03 EDT news680361601 The cloudy, sediment-laden meltwater from glaciers is a key source of nutrients for ocean life, but a new study suggests that as climate change causes many glaciers to shrink and retreat, their meltwater may become less nutritious. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-retreating-glaciers-nutrients-ocean.html Earth Sciences Wed, 22 Oct 2025 05:00:05 EDT news680249221 Glaciers are fighting back against climate change by cooling the air that touches their surfaces. But for how long? The Pellicciotti group at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) has compiled and re-analyzed an unprecedented dataset of on-glacier observations worldwide. Their findings, published today in Nature Climate Change, demonstrate that glaciers will likely reach the peak of their self-cooling power by the next decade before their near-surface temperatures spike up and melting accelerates. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-destined-glaciers-ability-cool-air.html Earth Sciences Fri, 10 Oct 2025 12:57:05 EDT news679319822 To quench his thirst, Tajik laborer Nematoullo Bassirov must take a risk—drawing water from the stream running through his yard and hoping he won't fall sick. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-vast-reserves-tajikistan-struggles.html Environment Mon, 06 Oct 2025 04:44:32 EDT news678944511 For as long as there have been people in what is now California, the granite peaks of the Sierra Nevada have held masses of ice, according to new research that shows the glaciers have probably existed since the last Ice Age more than 11,000 years ago. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-california-glaciers-people-ice-free.html Earth Sciences Thu, 02 Oct 2025 05:32:48 EDT news678601956 The highest rock wall in the Alps—the Monte Rosa East Face on the border between Italy and Switzerland—has for the first time been surveyed three-dimensionally with high precision. An international research team from the universities of Milan, Prague and Heidelberg has taken more than 3,000 high-resolution photos from a helicopter. Using a special method, a detailed 3D model is now emerging. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-helicopter-photos-scientists-3d-highest.html Earth Sciences Wed, 24 Sep 2025 15:20:01 EDT news677945571 Andean glaciers advanced during an acute period of climate change at the end of the last Ice Age, new research has found. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-andes-glaciers-grew-younger-dryas.html Earth Sciences Tue, 23 Sep 2025 09:31:03 EDT news677838661 On May 12, 2025, Buddha Day, Buddhist monks and scientific researchers gathered to pay tribute to Yala Glacier in Nepal's Langtang Valley. The International Center for Mountain Development (ICIMOD), an international NGO housed in Kathmandu, collaborated with local Indigenous community leaders to organize this event to raise awareness of Yala's rapid retreat and highlight the risk across Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) glaciers. They invited community leaders, local university professors and international media to the tribute, which included a central ceremony held by spiritual leaders. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-nepal-scientists-spiritual-leaders-honor.html Earth Sciences Fri, 19 Sep 2025 12:01:36 EDT news677502091 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 of a warming climate on glacial loss is undisputed—this new study provides the first evidence that seasonal shifts in rainfall and snowfall patterns, particularly of the South Asian monsoons, are also exacerbating glacier melting across the region. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-monsoon-glacier-loss-high-mountain.html Earth Sciences Sat, 30 Aug 2025 05:57:14 EDT news675752207 Floods and landslides triggered by record-breaking heavy rain have killed more than 30 people in India's Himalayan region of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Wednesday. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-landslides-india-jammu-region.html Environment Wed, 27 Aug 2025 07:45:18 EDT news675499515 Many tropical glaciers in the Andes are expected to disappear in the next few decades. Their meltwater sustains millions of people, feeding crops in the dry season, supplying Peru's capital Lima and other big cities, and even boosting the Amazon River. As glaciers vanish, floods and droughts are becoming more extreme. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-lessons-incas-llamas-terraces-trees.html Ecology Tue, 26 Aug 2025 13:20:01 EDT news675430127 Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago that is technically a part of Norway, lies about halfway between the northernmost part of Norway and the North Pole. Currently, about 60% of Svalbard's surface is covered in glaciers, but these glaciers are melting rapidly. During the summer of 2024, Svalbard experienced a record-breaking heat wave that melted more of its glaciers than ever before. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-svalbard-lost-ice-summer-year.html Earth Sciences Tue, 19 Aug 2025 11:30:04 EDT news674821724 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. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-glacial-lake-juneau-alaska-mountain.html Environment Thu, 14 Aug 2025 12:18:47 EDT news674392721 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? https://phys.org/news/2025-08-machine-global-glacier-erosion-precision.html Earth Sciences Thu, 07 Aug 2025 15:31:45 EDT news673799501 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 results show that over the last few years, the glacier has retreated by as much as 800 meters in some areas, and that it may collapse and retreat by several kilometers in the near future. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-perito-moreno-glacier-retreat-future.html Earth Sciences Thu, 07 Aug 2025 11:00:08 EDT news673714229 The University of Phoenix College of General Studies has published a new peer-reviewed study in the journal Wild, co-authored by Jacquelyn Kelly, Ph.D., associate dean, Dianna Gielstra, Ph.D. and Tomáš J. Oberding, Ph.D., along with a multidisciplinary team of researchers from institutions across the U.S. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-explores-role-virtual-field.html Education Thu, 07 Aug 2025 05:50:03 EDT news673764601 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 that scientists can use to examine environmental changes through time. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-scientists-ice-core-european-alps.html Earth Sciences Wed, 16 Jul 2025 07:30:02 EDT news671868207 A total collapse of the roughly 80-mile-wide Thwaites Glacier, the widest in the world, would trigger changes that could lead to 11 feet of sea-level rise, according to scientists who study Antarctica. To better predict fractures that could lead to such a collapse—and to better understand the processes driving changes in Antarctic ice shelves—a team led by researchers at Penn State developed a new method to evaluate cracks that destabilize ice shelves and accelerate those losses. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-antarctic-ice-tool.html Earth Sciences Thu, 10 Jul 2025 11:17:24 EDT news671365033 Across Europe and around the world, melting glaciers are reshaping landscapes and climate systems. Researchers Elzė Buslavičiūtė and Dr. Laurynas Jukna from the Institute of Geosciences at the Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences, Vilnius University, explain how satellite data is used to monitor glacier movement, assess their response to climate change, and calculate these changes through remote sensing technologies from space. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-tracking-ice-satellite-reveal-glaciers.html Earth Sciences Tue, 08 Jul 2025 16:26:50 EDT news671210806