Geology News
Glaciers Current Events

“Scientists at the British Antarctic Survey have been working with a host of international collaborators to present the most detailed map yet of Antarctica’s landmass. [...] The map allows scientists to analyse, in much greater detail, the bed below the Antarctic ice sheet.” Quoted from the British Antarctic Survey press release.

As rising temperatures melt the ice and snow in the Himalayas the threat of glacial lake outbursts increases.

Moss frozen for an estimated 400 years in a Nunavut glacier has been exposed by glacial retreat and is growing again.

“Last July, something unprecedented in the 34-year satellite record happened: 98 percent of the Greenland Ice Sheet’s surface melted, compared to roughly 50 percent during an average summer.” Quoted from the CIRES press release.

“While 99 percent of Earth’s land ice is locked up in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, the remaining ice in the world’s glaciers contributed just as much to sea rise as the two ice sheets combined from 2003 to 2009.” Quoted from the University of Colorado Boulder press release.

The Alaska Dispatch has an article with photos that tell the story of a landslide covering the Black Rapids Glacier during the 2002 Denali Fault Earthquake.

The American Museum of Natural History has an interesting video about the Quelccaya ice cap in the Peruvian Andes, where researchers are collecting cores to document past climate change recorded in the ice.

Salt glaciers (also known as namakiers) are masses of salt that erupt onto Earth’s surface and flow downslope under their own weight.

They develop where salt domes rise high enough to reach the surface.

This video shows how a NASA micro-sub was deployed 2000 feet down a borehole to investigate one of the subglacial lakes in Antarctica.

An article in Scientific American reports that time lapse cameras, placed by a U.S. geologist from the University of Colorado at Boulder to record glacial melting in the Himalayas, were confiscated with the accusation that they were being used to “spy on China”. See some of the videos here.

“The Lyell Glacier, the largest glacier in Yosemite National Park, has stagnated, or ceased its downhill movement, according to a recent study conducted by scientists from the National Park Service and the University of Colorado. The adjacent Maclure Glacier is still moving at its historical rate, about one inch per day.” Quoted from the Yosemite National Park press release.

“Climate change is already affecting the American people. Certain types of weather events have become more frequent and/or intense, including heat waves, heavy downpours, and, in some regions, floods and droughts. Sea level is rising, oceans are becoming more acidic, and glaciers and arctic sea ice are melting. These changes are part of the pattern of global climate change, which is primarily driven by human activity.” Quoted from the Executive Summary of the Federal Advisory Committee Draft Climate Assessment Report

Three teams of scientists from Russia, Britain and the United States are drilling through Antarctic ice to penetrate subglacial “lakes” of liquid water trapped in the ice. They might find interesting forms of life that can live in the extreme conditions of these lakes – without sunlight.

The National Science Foundation has published: “Solving the Puzzle: Researching the Impacts of Climate Change Around the World“. It documents research in the categories of: Sky, Sea, Ice, Land, Life and People.

Are rock glaciers a mass of moving ice covered with a surface of rocks or are they a mass of rocks with interstitial ice? The collapse of a rock glacier in Colorado reveals the truth – at least for this rock glacier.

Although a lot of media hype focused on an Antarctic sea ice increase early this year, an international team recently documented that the continent is experiencing a net loss in ice mass

“Rupper’s most conservative findings indicate that even if climate remained steady, almost 10 percent of Bhutan’s glaciers would vanish within the next few decades. What’s more, the amount of melt water coming off these glaciers could drop by 30 percent.” Quoted from the BYU press release.

An article in the Bellingham Herald explores glacial change on Mount Baker, Washington. A pair of photos document how the glaciers have retreated.

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“Bolivia is a pretty dry place. [..] The slow decline of the glaciers there is a concern because these storehouses of ice supply about 20 percent of the water used by major Bolivian cities such as La Paz and Santa Cruz.” Quoted from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research article.

“Glaciers in the eastern and central regions of the Himalayas appear to be retreating at accelerating rates, similar to those in other areas of the world, while glaciers in the western Himalayas are more stable and could be growing, says a new report from the National Research Council.”

USGS has published “Simulation of groundwater and surface-water interaction and effects of pumping in a complex glacial-sediment aquifer, east central Massachusetts“.

The effects of groundwater pumping on surface-water features were evaluated by use of a numerical groundwater model developed for a complex glacial-sediment aquifer in northeastern Framingham, Massachusetts, and parts of surrounding towns.

The Ohio Geological Survey has an educational publication titled “The Ice Age in Ohio”. It has a number of interesting maps, photos and information.

The Colorado Geological Survey has a great photo of a rock glacier near Ouray, Colorado. A rock glacier is a large accumulation of rock with interstitial ice that flows down slope like a glacier. View this feature on a Google Map.

GreenlandMelting.com has a collection of annual melt maps from 1979 through 2012 (updated periodically). Each map is accompanied by a yearly melt area graph (day of year vs. melt area?). View a sequence of these maps and decide for yourself if recent years show a trend.

“Researchers have found a way to use GPS to measure short-term changes in the rate of ice loss on Greenland – and reveal a surprising link between the ice and the atmosphere above it.” Quoted from the Ohio State University press release.

Fox news has published more images of the enormous landslide that overran a glacier in Glacier Bay National Park.

“I don’t know of any that are bigger,” Marten Geertsema, a research geomorphologist for the provincial Forest Service in British Columbia, said Thursday, when comparing the landslide to others in North America. Quoted from the FoxNews.com report.

“A chunk of ice twice the size of Manhattan has parted from Greenland’s Petermann glacier.” Quoted from the Washington Post article.