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EartherClimate ChangeScientists Have Observed Ominous Winter Leaks in Greenland Ice Sheet Lakes
For the first time ever, scientists have shown that lakes on Greenland’s ice sheet can drain during the winter months, in a phenomenon that could accelerate the rate of glacial melt. The rate at which the second largest ice sheet in the world is draining into the northern Atlantic ocean may be occurring faster than … Continued
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EartherMillion-Year-Old Plants Show Greenland Was Once Ice-Free
Jars of dirt taken from a Cold War-era military caper and lost in a freezer for decades could hold crucial new information about climate change and sea level rise. A study published on Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Scientists says that plant fossils found in a sample of dirt collected from a … Continued
By Molly Taft -
EartherClimate ChangeThe Siberian Tundra Is Doing That Exploding Thing Again
The Siberian tundra is still out here exploding. A new study from the Woodwell Climate Research Center has identified three new craters in the region’s increasingly volatile permafrost, and the climate crisis is to blame. Researchers have been seeing giant holes form in western Siberia’s Yamal Peninsula for years. The first, discovered by workers back … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
EartherThis Giant Ice Cube Represents How Much Ice We’re Losing Every Year
We talk about ice a lot here on Earther—or more specifically, the growing absence of it. A new study puts what’s happening to the planet in striking perspective. While I can tell you the results show 1.2 trillion tons of ice disappeared every year since 1994, it’s a lot easier to grasp as a visual. … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
EartherGreenland Faces a Century of Unprecedented Ice Loss
Hey, we haven’t checked in on the Greenland in awhile, let’s see what’s hap… Oh. Oh no. New research published on Wednesday in Nature shows the Greenland ice sheet is already pushing the boundaries of mass loss seen over the past 12,000 years. Even under the best-case climate scenario, where humanity rapidly draws down emissions … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
EartherClimate ChangeKingdom of Frost Explores How Frozen Landscapes Shaped Humanity
Growing up in the Norwegian Arctic—one of the coldest places on Earth—journalist Bjørn Vassnes became fascinated with the natural sciences. Today, he pens a science column for one of Norway’s most popular daily newspapers and hosts the television science program Schrödingers katt (Schrödinger’s cat) on the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. But it wasn’t until he began … Continued
Amy Brady -
EartherClimate Change‘Unprecedented Conditions’ Will Rule the Oceans This Century, Striking New Report Finds
Humans live on land, but it’s the watery parts of the planet that dictate our fate. The frozen ice at the poles and in high mountains and the vast swath of ocean that covers nearly three-quarters of the planet mean this place is primarily earth in name only. The ice—dubbed the cryosphere by scientists—and the … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
EartherScientists Find Dozens of Lakes Buried Far Below Greenland’s Ice
For decades, scientists working in Antarctica have been documenting subglacial lakes, bodies of water buried miles beneath the ice. They’ve spotted more than 400 of them, and even drilled into a few and found evidence for both living and long-dead lifeforms. But despite their ubiquity at the bottom of the world, no one had really … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
EartherThis Part of Antarctica Was Not Supposed to Be Shrinking
When scientists talk about Antarctic melting, they’re usually referring to West Antarctica, where giant coastal glaciers are shedding incredible amounts of water. But across the Transantarctic mountains to the east, there’s a much larger mantle of ice that’s generally thought to be keeping its chill. A new study, however, asserts that East Antarctica is also … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
EartherEarth ScienceScientists Just Melted a Hole Through 3,500 Feet of Ice to Reach a Mysterious Antarctic Lake
While you were baking cookies and binging Netflix shows over Christmas, a team of about 50 scientists, drillers, and support staff was attempting to punch through nearly 4,000 feet of ice to access an Antarctic subglacial lake for just the second time in human history. And folks, they did it. On Friday, the Subglacial Antarctic … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Earther
New Study Shows Just How Frighteningly Fast Greenland Is Melting
In July 2012, a spate of warm weather caused nearly the entire surface of the Greenland ice sheet to begin melting, an event with no precedent in the satellite record. A new study shows this massive melt-out wasn’t just an anomaly compared with the last 40 years, but the last 350. Unfortunately, the study also … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
EartherClimate ChangeAn Iceberg the Size of Lower Manhattan Just Broke off Greenland
Iceberg calving events are among the more epic spectacles on the planet. But rarely have humans been lucky enough to see them happen in real time, much less capture one on camera. A team of New York University (NYU) researchers has now done just that, capturing video footage of a four-mile long iceberg snapping off east … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
EartherClimate Change
Both Poles Are Having a Weird, Bad Year For Sea Ice So Far
As Americans were donning green shirts and tossing back pints of Guinness, the Arctic was limping toward its annual wintertime sea ice maximum. According to data released Friday by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, it was the second-lowest annual maximum on record. Sea ice in the Arctic very likely peaked on March 17 … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
EartherClimate Change
Future El Niños Could Spell Trouble For the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
There’s a mad scramble underway in the scientific community to learn everything possible about the imperiled West Antarctic ice sheet, whose glaciers hold back enough water to raise global sea levels by 10 feet or more. The latest troubling climate factor to keep an eye on? El Niño. A team of researchers has learned that … Continued
By Maddie Stone
