Glacial retreat

A new glacier chronology from New Zealand

Levan Tielidze July 15, 2022

Figure 1. An example of a dated moraine landform from the Southern Alps. Yellow dots indicate the location of the samples. The black ages are from boulders while the blue ages are from bedrock. The dimension of each age is a thousand years old. The red initials indicate sample names (Credit: Tielidze et al., 2022).

In this week’s blog, Levan Tielidze tells us about the new glacier history from the Southern Alps of New Zealand, an important piece of information to better understand the climatic history of Earth during the Quaternary, the current geologic period. Quaternary glaciations Geochronological dating of glacial moraines is useful for determining the extent and timing of past glaciation and for reconst ...[Read More]

Summer 2022: A perfect storm for Alpine glaciers

Giovanni Baccolo and Lander Van Tricht July 1, 2022

The Kleinfleiss glacier in the Hohe Tauern region of the Eastern Alps. Credits: https://www.foto-webcam.eu/.

The summer of 2022 is shaping up to be a perfect storm for Alpine glaciers. By a strange coincidence, all the factors that could adversely affect glacial dynamics seem to have come into agreement. Let’s find out why. What controls the behavior of Alpine glaciers? Snow, temperature, weather conditions and the properties of snow and ice. These are the most important factors governing the life ...[Read More]

Time & space of glaciers

Alexandra Rogozhina February 25, 2022

Ice fall in Azay glacier in the beginning of XX century [Credits: Alexandra Rogozhina & IGRAS/RGO]

People usually perceive space and time, comparing them to their own life Words such as “forever” and “until the end” appear in fiction But how can we imagine the space and time of the mountain glaciers whose existence goes beyond our usual perception? And why is it so important for us now? With this post, researcher Alexandra Rogozhina shares her thoughts on these suggestive topics. Mostly, ...[Read More]

Climate change and the Cryosphere – With ice we are also losing a piece of our cultural heritage: a glaciologist’s perspective

Giovanni Baccolo November 5, 2021

The most famous glacier of the Dolomites (in the Eastern Alps): the Marmolada glacier. Its retreat has been ongoing for over a century and the glacier has now become a distant memory of what it used to be at the end of the Little Ice Age, in the late 19th century. [Credits: Giovanni Baccolo]

Glaciers are shrinking and disappearing in many regions of the Earth. Did you know? I am joking of course. We are flooded with news talking about this. The decline of glaciers has manifold and severe consequences and is one of the most powerful icons of climate change. Here I want to talk a little bit about one of the less talked about impact of glacier decline: the loss of culture and knowledge r ...[Read More]

Climate Change and Cryosphere – What can we learn from the smallest, most vulnerable glaciers in the Ötztal Alps?

Markus Strudl March 19, 2021

The Alps were the first mountains to be studied from a glaciological point of view in the 19th century and they host some of the most studied glaciers of Earth. Some of them are found in the Central Alps and in particular, the Ötztal Alps. Just to cite the most known and largest glaciers in this Alpine sector, we can mention Hintereisferner or Vernagtferner. But in the Ötztal Alps you can also fin ...[Read More]

Image of The Week – The Pulsating Ice Sheet!

Emma C. Smith March 3, 2017

Figure 1: (a) Ice sheet at its most advanced state, the terminus is grounded 300 m beneath sea level (b) An ocean-warming event triggers retreat (c) Retreat is amplified by enhanced calving as the ice sheet retreats into deeper water (d) After the collapse, the ice sheet is in its most retreated position. Isostatic adjustment uplifts the bed (and sill) which will allow the ice sheet to advance again. Insets show a close-up around the sill. [Credit: Bassis et al., 2017]

During the last glacial period (~110,000-12,500 years ago) the Laurentide Ice Sheet (North America) experienced rapid, episodic, mass loss events – known as Heinrich events. These events are particularly curious as they occurred during the colder portions of the last glacial period, when we would intuitively expect large-scale mass loss during warmer times. In order to understand mass loss m ...[Read More]

Image of the Week — Historical aerial imagery of Greenland

Mette Bendixen May 27, 2016

Aerial photo of the Zackenberg delta in North-East Greenland taken in 1932. (Credit: Danish Geodata Agency)

A few month ago, we were taking you on a trip back to Antarctic fieldwork 50 years ago, today we go back to Greenland during 1930s! When geopolitics serves cryospheric sciences The Permanent Court of International Justice in The Hague awarded Danish sovereignty over Greenland in 1933 and besides geopolitical interests, Denmark had a keen interest in searching for natural resources and new opportun ...[Read More]

Image of the Week — Last Glacial Maximum in Europe

Sophie Berger March 4, 2016

Last glaciation in Europe, ~70,000-20,000 year BP (credit: Wikimedia Commons user Ulamm)

During the last ice age*, ~70,000 to 20,000 years ago, the climate was much colder in Europe. As a result, the northern part of Europe was fully covered by the Fennoscandian (a.k.a the Scandinavian ) ice sheet, which extended up to the British Isles and some parts of Poland and Germany. In central Europe, the Alps were also almost fully glaciated. The storage of all this ice on the continent lower ...[Read More]

Image of the Week : 63 years of the Muir Glacier’s retreat

Sophie Berger October 30, 2015

Three repeat photos of the Muir Glacier, Alaska taken on 13 August 1941, 4 August 1950 and 31 August 2004 . Credit: U.S. Geological Survey

The Muir is a valley glacier (Alaska) that has significantly retreated over the last 2 centuries. The 3 pictures have the same field of view and record the changes that occurred during the 63 years separating 1941 and 2004. In the 1941, the terminus of the glacier is on the lower right corner of the photo. The Muir is then a tidewater glacier up to 700m thick and is well connected to its tributary ...[Read More]