CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Little Ice Age

Tracking the Footprints of a Vanishing Glaciers in the Greater Caucasus

June 13, 2025
Aerial image showing the climate change impact on small glaciers in the central Greater Caucasus, Georgia. Slopes are extensive deposits of moraines and loose rock debris, left behind by retreating glaciers. A small glacial lake (near the center-bottom of the image) fed by meltwater from the surrounding ice and snow was developed after glacier retreat [Credit: Levan Tielidze].
Aerial image showing the climate change impact on small glaciers in the central Greater Caucasus, Georgia. Slopes are extensive deposits of moraines and loose rock debris, left behind by retreating glaciers. A small glacial lake (near the center-bottom of the image) fed by meltwater from the surrounding ice and snow was developed after glacier retreat [Credit: Levan Tielidze].

In this week’s blog, Levan Tielidze tells us about his recent glacier study from the Greater Caucasus. By combining geomorphology, remote sensing, and historical cartography, the team reconstructed nearly 200 years of glacier and climate change across one of the world’s most dynamic cryospheric frontiers. Glaciers’ transformation provides a high-resolution archive of post-Little Ice Age climate dy ...[Read More]

Climate Change & Cryosphere – How the Chalaati Glacier (Georgian Caucasus) changed since the Little Ice Age

September 4, 2020

Chalaati Glacier is one of the largest glaciers in the Greater Caucasus and has undergone expansive mass loss. In this week’s blog post, Levan Tielidze tells us about Chalaati Glacier variations in the past centuries. His recent study was conducted based on surface exposure dating technique, dendrochronology (tree ring analysis), lichenometry, and satellite imagery. They found out that the Chalaat ...[Read More]