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Spectacular Glacial Dust Plume
November 3, 2009 | NASA Earth Observatory

“In this image, the wind is blowing from the snow-covered mountains to the Gulf of Alaska. The wind picked up fine sediment from the riverbank and carried it over the ocean. The pale brown plume of airborne dust contrasts sharply with the dark ocean beneath it.” Quoted from the Earth Observatory image release.

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Kilimanjaro Glaciers Are Melting
November 3, 2009 | CNN Tech

An article on the CNN website reports that the glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania are retreating and could be melted away within 20 years.

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Antarctica map
West Antarctic Ice Sheet May Not Be Melting As Fast As Once Thought
October 21, 2009 | The University of Texas at Austin

“New ground measurements made by the West Antarctic GPS Network project, composed of researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, The Ohio State University, and The University of Memphis, suggest the rate of ice loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet has been slightly overestimated.” Quoted from The University of Texas at Austin press release.

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Antarctica map
NASA Flights Will Probe Antarctic Ice
October 12, 2009 | CNN

NASA will be looking for changes in Antarctic ice using a DC-8 equipped with instruments that are capable of “seeing” through the ice and collecting information about its thickness and the presence of water.

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Himalayan Glaciers: Melted by 2035?
October 6, 2009 | CNN

A report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that glaciers in the Himalayas are melting rapidly and could be gone by 2035. The loss of meltwater from these glaciers will be an enormous problem for agricultural economies downstream.

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Measuring the Speed of a Glacier
September 28, 2009 | Christian Science Monitor

Researchers are monitoring the speed of Greenland’s Helheim Glacier and other glaciers using GPS receivers. They don’t move at a steady rate of speed but instead accelerate abruptly and slow down. These dynamics of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have not been entered into sea level rise calculations.

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Some Glaciers Accelerate Towards The Sea
September 26, 2009 | Time

In addition to melting, some glaciers are losing ice because they are accelerating. Summer meltwater can fall into the glacier through cracks in its surface and that water then lubricates sliding at the base of the ice.

More news about glaciers.

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Greenland’s Melting Glaciers
September 20, 2009 |

Visit Greenland through this CNN video to learn about how Greenland’s glaciers are rapidly melting and contributing to sea level rise.

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Greenland Glaciers Satellite Image
September 14, 2009 | NASA

Earth Observatory has published a satellite image that shows several glaciers flowing into a dry valley in Western Greenland.

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Mount Rainier: The Most Dangerous Cascade Volcano
September 9, 2009 | USGS

USGS names Mount Rainier in Washington as the most dangerous volcano in the Cascade Range. Part of its danger is attributed to the 26 glaciers on the mountain which, if melted by an eruption, could produce enormous lahars.

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Mount Hood, Oregon – Satellite Image
August 17, 2009 | Earth Observatory

Earth Observatory has an interesting satellite image of Mount Hood showing the mountain, glaciers and volcanic deposits produced by lahars and pyroclastic flows.

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Shrinking Glaciers in the United States
August 9, 2009 | USGS

“Fifty years of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) research on glacier change shows recent dramatic shrinkage of glaciers in three climatic regions of the United States. These long periods of record provide clues to the climate shifts that may be driving glacier change.” Quoted from the USGS release

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Arctic
Arctic Ice Formed Before Antarctic Ice
July 28, 2009 | University of Southampton

The examination of sediment cores reveal that Arctic sea ice may have formed before Antarctic sea ice. This is an interesting find, as glaciation is thought to have occurred in the opposite order.

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Kerguelen Island Glacier Shrinking
July 23, 2009 | Yahoo! News

A study by French scientists reveals Cook Glacier on Kerguelen Island in the southern Indian Ocean has lost 20 percent of its volume in the last 40 years.

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Rapid Retreat of Glaciers
July 22, 2009 | University at Buffalo

Paleoclimatologists at the University at Buffalo report on research that indicates…. “Modern glaciers, such as those making up the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, are capable of undergoing periods of rapid shrinkage or retreat.”

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Arctic
Greenland Ice Melt Might Threaten Coastlines
July 17, 2009 | AGU

A study published in a recent issue of Geophysical Research Letters suggests that melting of the Greenland ice cap might cause sea levels along the coast of eastern Canada and the northeastern United States to rise more than sea levels in other areas because of changes in ocean currents.

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Bacteria
PNL.gov Image
120,000-Year-Old Bacteria Revived
June 19, 2009 | Society for General Microbiology

A frozen bacterium which lived 120,000 years ago has been brought back to life. The microbe, named Herminiimonas glaciei, was found in Greenland’s glacial ice. It was revived over the course of almost a year at Pennsylvania State University.

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New Zealand
Ice Cores Yield Climate Data
June 16, 2009 | GNS Science

Six scientists are spending a few weeks in Mount Cook National Park to collect glacial ice cores. The cores will yield climate data from years past.

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Argentina: Perito Moreno Glacier
June 14, 2009 | AOL news

Most glaciers worldwide are shrinking. However, Argentina’s Perito Moreno glacier is an exception. It has been nearly in equilibrium for over the past 100 years.

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Eco Everest Inspires Climbers
May 31, 2009 | CNN

Eco Everest Expeditions is a group of people dedicated to preserving the Himalayas. They are raising awareness of how climate change and human behavior are taking a toll on the mountains.

Related: World’s highest mountains.

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Isabela Island
Disappearing Tourist Spots
May 6, 2009 | Yahoo! Travel

Melting glaciers, a rising sea level, and other problems are threatening to ruin some popular tourist destinations. This is a list of places that may change dramatically in the near future, including the Maldive Islands, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Alps, and the Galapagos Islands.

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Life Beneath a Glacier
April 17, 2009 | CNN

Scientists have discovered a pocket of iron-breathing bacteria beneath the Taylor Glacier of Antarctica. The colony of organisms are thought to have been trapped beneath the glacier for 1.5 million years.

Related stories.
Antarctic Dust and Climate Record
April 3, 2009 | Reuters

Researchers are finding dust in Antarctic ice that was swept by wind off of South American glaciers thousands of years ago. This dust is providing information about shifts in Earth’s climate over the past 70,000 years.

Related stories.
Glacier Melting Videos
March 29, 2009 | Extreme Ice Survey

The Extreme Ice Survey has a collection of videos that document the retreat of numerous glaciers. These were produced by taking sequential photographs from the same location.


AK-03 Columbia Glacier from Cliff from Extreme Ice Survey on Vimeo.

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Melting Glaciers Alter Political Boundaries
March 26, 2009 | CNN

Portions of the boundary between Italy and Switzerland originally traced topographic features. Now that glaciers there are melting, the ground surface – rather than the ice surface – will be used as a new boundary.

Related stories.
Measuring North Pole Ice Thickness
March 16, 2009 | CNN

A video about the three British explorers who are trekking to the North Pole and calling in measurements of ice thickness all along the way.

Related stories.
USGS
Arctic Heats Up More than Other Places
March 15, 2009 | USGS

USGS PODCAST: “Temperature change in the Arctic is happening at a greater rate than other places in the Northern Hemisphere, and this is expected to continue in the future. As a result, glacier and ice-sheet melting, sea-ice retreat, coastal erosion and sea level rise can be expected to continue. USGS scientist Joan Fitzpatrick discusses a new report on past climate variability and change in the Arctic.”

Related stories.
Saginaw Bay Ice
March 13, 2009 | Earth Observatory

Earth Observatory has a pair of satellite images of Saginaw Bay, where strong winds drive ice onto the shore and piled it up against homes (video). One image was captured while the Bay was fully covered with ice and the other after the wind helped break up the ice cover.

Related stories.
Video: Ice Flow Damages Homes
March 10, 2009 | CNN

Strong winds have pushed broken ice across the surface of Lake Huron and piled it up onto the shoreline. In one location near Linwood, Michigan the ice accumulation is 12 feet high and has damaged homes.

Related stories.
Under the Greenland Ice Sheet
March 9, 2009 | WHOI

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has an article titled “Getting to the Bottom of the Greenland Ice Sheet” on their website. There you can learn about the dye test that tracked water down through a half mile of ice and out to the ocean about 25 miles away.

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