glaciers

Before and after photos show how glaciers have totally melted over the years

Global warming is melting the world. Here are photos collected from the USGS that shows how Glacier National Parks—once home to 150 glaciers in Montana and now down to only 25—has changed over the years. Ice basically disappears in these before and after photos. In fact, you can see serious change from just two years…

Sploid Casey Chan Oct 22

The Frozen Wastes of Pluto are Eerily Familiar

Of all the things we thought we might see while speeding past Pluto, we weren’t expecting the icy world to look quite this much like our home planet’s frozen poles. This is the science so far of those eerily familiar landscapes. Geomorphology is the study of landforms—what they are, how they’re formed, and why they…

Tech News Mika McKinnon Sep 24

Greenland’s Ice Sheets Are Getting Cooked By Warm Ocean Currents

The retreat of Arctic sea ice has been so dramatic over the last few years that atlases are being changed. Now it turns out Greenland’s ice sheets are also melting faster than we thought—not on the visible surface, but due to currents deep below the ocean. While the loss of polar sea ice is troubling,…

Tech News Alissa Walker Aug 28

How Deep Are Greenland’s Glacial Lakes?

By analyzing satellite photos, geologists are able to measure the depth of the lakes that form on glaciers during the summer months. Fascinatingly, the process that produces these lakes is also responsible for their remarkable depth. Satellite images of Greenland’s Jakobshavn Glacier reveal a network of lakes strewn across the top of its surface. These…

io9 George Dvorsky Aug 18

Why Buffalo’s Dirty Snow Pile Still Hasn’t Melted Yet

Over the winter, the Eastern US was blanketed in blizzard after blizzard. As a stark reminder of Mother Nature’s bitchiness, two snow-plowed piles of that record snowfall in two different cities lingered well into summer. One of them is still frozen—a mud-caked sno-cone slowly oozing in the sun. The giant snow piles which have managed…

Climate Change Alissa Walker Jul 31

Being inside an ice cave inside a glacier looks absolutely stunning

National Geographic shares this really cool photograph taken by Robbie Shone showing the inside of a glacier. Being inside the ice cave is like being in a sparkly gem stone or something. NatGeo says the explorers in the photo were installing a rope traverse below the surface of Europe’s second largest glacial system, the Gorner…

Sploid Casey Chan Jun 2

This Rare Advancing Glacier Is Set To Transform An Alaskan Fjord

Glaciers around the world are in retreat, but not Alaska’s Hubbard Glacier. It’s steadily advancing into Disenchantment Bay, threatening to block the entrance to Russell Fjord and disrupt life in the nearby town of Yakutat. Top image: Hubbard Glacier, July 22, 2014. Scientists have been tracking the growth of Hubbard Glacier since 1895, and since…

io9 George Dvorsky May 20

Drumlins Are The Easy-To-Identify, Hard-To-Understand Glacial Landform

Drumlins are a ubiquitous landform in lands once overrun by glaciers, and yet after two centuries of studying them, we still aren’t certain how these teardrop-shaped hills form. Top image: A drumlin field 27 kilometers southwest of Amundsen Gulf in the Nunavut Territory of Canada, imaged by Landsat 8 on June 21, 2014. Credit: NASA…

Tech News Mika McKinnon Mar 22

Ice Cracks Outline The Collapse Of A Drained Subglacial Lake

A subglacial lake in Greenland drained out from under the ice in 2011, leading to this mitten-shaped collapsed. Now Operation Icebridge scientists report the lake is slowly refilling. Ice collapsed over a now-empty subglacial lake, photographed on April 26, 2013. Image credit: NASA

Tech News Mika McKinnon Mar 4

Iceland Is Rising Out of the Water

Iceland is rising at the rate of as much as 1.4 inches per year. That’s right — the land itself is moving upward. Ice is heavy, so it’s only logical that when it disappears, the material below it rises. But it’s still tough to wrap your brain around the findings of three scientists who have…

Climate Change Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan Jan 30

A Stunning 3D Cross-Section Of Greenland’s Ice Sheet

NASA scientists have used ice-penetrating radar to create a remarkable visualization of the many frozen layers that constitute Greenland’s expansive ice sheet. Prior to the new analysis, scientists who wanted to study the ice sheet had to drill down into it. By pulling up core samples, researchers were able to detect signs of past snow…

io9 George Dvorsky Jan 29

Glacier National Park Is On Track To Be Glacier-Free By 2030

When Glacier National Park was dedicated in 1910, this stunning span of the Rocky Mountains on the Montana-Canadian border counted over 150 thick, morphing ice sheets that gave the park its name. One very warm century later, there are only 26 glaciers here. And by 2030, scientists warn, that number could be zero. One computer-based…

Climate Change Alissa Walker Nov 26

Melt Ponds on Ice Sheets Are Chillingly Beautiful

When endless summer days reach the Arctic,the massive expanses ofrarely-interrupted blinding white is cut by lakes and rivers of meltwater. The deep blue set against white is a unique, surreal beauty, creating an alien landscape that is smooth, crisp, and cool in its simplicity. Researchers retrieving a parachuted canister of supplies. Image credit & read…

Tech News Mika McKinnon Aug 5

Only a sheet of ice protects you from falling 1000 feet down this abyss

Photographer Aaron Huey, who is on assignment for National Geographic, recently shared a picture of a frighteningly deep hole on the Lower Ruth Glacier. The only thing stopping people from plummeting down the 1000 feet drop into the ground is a sheet of ice. One crack, though. Huey wrote: Staring down what could be a…

Sploid Casey Chan Aug 1

Dive Through Ice Caves and Skip Over Crevasses

Glaciers are an exotic world of beauty. In this video, a drone flirts with light filtered through translucent walls, capturing that ethereal mix of blue ice, white snow, and chilly brightness that defines glaciers. Take five minutes to ride along, swooping through caves and dancing around icy crags. Glaciers fascinating me. The various textures of…

Tech News Mika McKinnon Jul 9

An Artificial Landmark in the Arctic

Ice sheets don’t have many landmarks, but the IceBridge flight path between the Humboldt and Petermann Glacier contains one straight out of history: the 1947 crash site of the B-29 Superfortress, Kee Bird. Operation IceBridge is a NASA mission to monitor ice, making annual flights since 2009 to track changes in glaciers, ice sheets, and…

Tech News Mika McKinnon Jun 10

3-Million-Year-Old Landscape Found Beneath Greenland’s Ice Sheet

Scientists have found organic soil 10,000 feet beneath the ice sheet that stretches across 80 percent of Greenland. The discovery reveals that the central region of Greenland’s tundra—once covered with forests—was locked away and preserved, as if in an icebox. “The traditional knowledge about glaciers is that they are very powerful agents of erosion and…

io9 Mark Strauss Apr 18

This video shows why you don’t want to be anywhere near a glacier when it collapses

A small group of tourists recently got more than they bargained for, while glacier-watching in Greenland. Jens Møller, along with his uncle and an Australian sightseer, got a little too close to a melting glacier when this happened. And if you think that was cool, you must check out this harrowing video of a glacier…

io9 George Dvorsky Jul 24

There are still glaciers right in the middle of Africa…for now

It’s fair to say that Africa isn’t really known for its snow and ice. Indeed, that sentence could probably win several understatement of the year contests. But a few tropical glaciers can be found there. But for how much longer? Since I’m already saying things that aren’t especially shocking, I should point out that tropical…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Feb 17

20 Million Year Old Lake Beneath Antarctica Is About to Be Uncovered

Two and a half miles under the Earth lies Lake Vostok, which hasn’t seen the light of day in 20 million years. It’s taken almost 20 years of drilling, but Russian scientists are about to break through and explore the lake at the bottom of the world. Vostok is thought to hold more fresh water…

Tech News Kyle Wagner Feb 1

Before and after photos show how glaciers have totally melted over the years

The Frozen Wastes of Pluto are Eerily Familiar

Greenland’s Ice Sheets Are Getting Cooked By Warm Ocean Currents

How Deep Are Greenland’s Glacial Lakes?

Why Buffalo’s Dirty Snow Pile Still Hasn’t Melted Yet

Being inside an ice cave inside a glacier looks absolutely stunning

This Rare Advancing Glacier Is Set To Transform An Alaskan Fjord

Drumlins Are The Easy-To-Identify, Hard-To-Understand Glacial Landform

Ice Cracks Outline The Collapse Of A Drained Subglacial Lake

Iceland Is Rising Out of the Water

A Stunning 3D Cross-Section Of Greenland’s Ice Sheet

Glacier National Park Is On Track To Be Glacier-Free By 2030

Melt Ponds on Ice Sheets Are Chillingly Beautiful

Only a sheet of ice protects you from falling 1000 feet down this abyss

Dive Through Ice Caves and Skip Over Crevasses

An Artificial Landmark in the Arctic

3-Million-Year-Old Landscape Found Beneath Greenland’s Ice Sheet

This video shows why you don’t want to be anywhere near a glacier when it collapses

There are still glaciers right in the middle of Africa…for now

20 Million Year Old Lake Beneath Antarctica Is About to Be Uncovered

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