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Geology News
Glaciers Current Events

“Brown University researchers have found compelling evidence of thick, recurring glaciers on Mars, a discovery that suggests that the Red Planet’s climate was much more dynamic than previously believed – and could change again.” Quoted from the Brown University release.

NASA Image

Many areas of the world rely on glacier runoff for drinking water and agriculture. As global temperature rises, glaciers are melting faster and earlier in the year. This can cause flooding in the spring and a lack of water when it is most needed in the summer months. Additionally, smaller glaciers may completely disappear in the coming years - leaving the surrounding areas without this valuable resource altogether.

USGS Image

In 2006, one of Greenland’s glacial lakes suddenly disappeared. It seems that the lake drained through a crack in the ice sheet, funneling 11.6 billion gallons of rushing water to the bedrock in less than two hours. Scientists have studied this event and are using it to understand the mechanics of ice flow.

National Geographic has an article that links melting glaciers to the occurrence of earthquakes. As the weight of the glacier is removed from the earth adjustments in the rocks below can produce fractures and/or movements.

Scientists from British Antarctic Survey, Durham University and Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research collected boulders deposited by three glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment. They are going to study how much they have been altered by high energy cosmic rays while being exposed on the ice sheet. The data can be used to learn about the rate of ice sheet movement.

NASA Image

Ice loss in Antarctica increased by 75 percent in the last 10 years due to a speed-up in the flow of its glaciers and is now nearly as great as that observed in Greenland.

“A University of Colorado at Boulder study indicates meltwater periodically overwhelms the interior drainpipes of Alaska’s Kennicott Glacier and causes it to lurch forward, similar to processes that may help explain the acceleration of glaciers observed recently on the Greenland ice sheet that are contributing to global sea rise.” Quoted from the NASA news release.

Reports from all over the world say that glaciers are melting. However, researchers have discovered that the glaciers of Mount Shasta in northern California are advancing. More snow is thought to be the cause.

Chinaview has a small gallery of recent photos of Glaciers on the Qinghai - Tibet Plateau. There, over 50,000 square kilometers are covered with glaciers. The photo gallery includes a few interesting photos and commentary of what the future might hold for them considering global climate change.

NASA Chart

MSNBC has an interesting collection of photos that document global warming. Shown are glaciers, atolls, rain forests, corals, dry lakes, ice flows, erosion, and much more.

NASA / JPL Image

Most rivers in northern Russia now flow into the Arctic Ocean. However, during the past 130,000 years, glaciers covered that area and dammed the rivers. This produced large lakes that overflowed into the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. These reversals in drainage happened several times in the past 130,000 years.

NASA Image

From the article: “As temperatures around the globe rise, the world’s mountains are changing. In the Alps, retreating glaciers, more landslides and rockfalls are causing shifts not only in the physical environment, but in jobs, town budgets, and attitudes.”

NASA Image

New research shows that industrial development in North America between 1850 and 1950 greatly increased the amount of soot that fell on Greenland’s glaciers and ice sheets. The soot reduced the ability of the snow and ice to reflect sunlight, which contributed to increased melting and higher temperatures in the region during those years.

NASA Image

Summer thaw is underway in Greenland. Snow and glaciers are melting, streams are flowing with meltwater, fjords are turbid with finely suspended sediment, and sea ice is breaking up. Earth Observatory has an interesting satellite image from eastern Greenland.

NOAA Image

A New Zealand-led study of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet concludes that it is presently stable. The ice sheet is over 3000 kilometers across and up to 4 kilometers thick and it’s melting or collapse would result in a serious sea level rise. A quote from the IHT article… “Rising sea levels in the short term will instead be mostly caused by the melting of valley glaciers, thermal expansion of the oceans, and from the retreat of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets.”

A 100-foot deep, five acre lake in the Bernardo O’Higgins National Park of Chile has disappeared and a river that used to flow out of the lake has been reduced to a very low discharge. The cause of this lake draining is not know but geologists are enroute to the lake to investigate. The discovery was made by Park rangers.

USGS Image

USGS is adding more information to the International Polar Year Website. According to their fact sheet important IPY activities include: a glacier studies project; sea-ice change and Antarctic life studies; Arctic Petroleum Resource Assessment; a new Landsat 7 image mosaic of Antarctica; a study of Arctic permafrost thawing in the Yukon River Basin; release of the U.S. Antarctic Photography Collection; and the Benchmark Glaciers Program.