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Articles on Glaciers

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Freshly exposed bedrock at the terminus of Brewster Glacier in March 2023. Andrew Lorrey

Frozen in time: old paintings and new photographs reveal some NZ glaciers may soon be extinct

An estimated 13 trillion litres of ice has already been lost from glaciers in New Zealand’s Southern Alps since 1978. Several are now approaching extinction.
Too much fresh water from Greenland’s ice sheet can slow the Atlantic Ocean’s circulation. Paul Souders/Stone via Getty Images

Atlantic Ocean is headed for a tipping point − once melting glaciers shut down the Gulf Stream, we would see extreme climate change within decades, study shows

Scientists now have a better understanding of the risks ahead and a new early warning signal to watch for.
The 10km wide Petermann Fjord in northern Greenland. The author’s icebreaker ship is a small dot in the middle. The cliffs on either side are a kilometre high. In the distance is the ‘ice tongue’ of the glacier flowing into the fjord. Martin Jakobsson

To predict future sea level rise, we need accurate maps of the world’s most remote fjords

Some of the world’s biggest glaciers flow into fjords in Greenland and we need to know what they’ll bump into on the seabed.
Richard Bates and Alun Hubbard kayak a meltwater stream on Greenland’s Petermann Glacier, towing an ice radar that reveals it’s riddled with fractures. Nick Cobbing.

Meltwater is infiltrating Greenland’s ice sheet through millions of hairline cracks – destabilizing its structure

Glaciologists are discovering new ways surface meltwater alters the internal structure of ice sheets, and raising an alarm that sea level rise could be much more abrupt than current models forecast.
Terminus of the Recherchebreen glacier in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, about 760 miles from the North Pole. Arterra Picture Library/Alamy

The melting Arctic is a crime scene. The microbes I study have long warned us of this catastrophe – but they are also driving it

To fully understand the extent of climate-related dangers the Arctic – and our planet – is facing, we must focus on organisms too small to be seen with the naked eye.
Transantarctic Mountains peaks are some of the only parts of the continent not buried beneath ice. Matt Makes Photos / shutterstock

Glaciers have existed on Earth for at least 60 million years – far longer than previously thought

Scientists used satellites to map tens of thousands of glacial landforms in Antarctica’s highest mountains.

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