EartherClimate Change

Scientists 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

EartherClimate Change

Ancient Greenland Cave Sediments Contain a Climate Change Warning

Increasing geologic evidence suggests that the Arctic was once a lot warmer than it is today, which means big trouble as we continue to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere with abandon. The latest development is a study published Wednesday in Science Advances, which uses geologic cave deposits to deduce that the region was at … Continued

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Million-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

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We Should Give Seals PhDs

Meltwater from Antarctic glaciers is changing the makeup of the region’s oceans more than previously known, a new study finds. The measurements that made these findings possible were collected by an unusual group of researchers: seals. The study, published Friday in Communications: Earth and Environment, uses measurements of water temperature and salinity to show how … Continued

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New Satellite Images Show Earth’s Latest Gigantic Iceberg

Behold A-74, an enormous iceberg that broke away from the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica late last month. Here’s what we know about the new ‘berg and what could happen next. Scientists with the British Antarctic Survey reported the birth of the new iceberg on Feb. 26, which they detected with GPS equipment. Christopher Readinger, an … Continued

EartherEarth Science

Iceberg More Than 20 Times the Size of Manhattan Breaks Off Antarctic Ice Shelf

An iceberg more than 20 times the size of Manhattan split off from the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica this week because our planet is totally having a normal one. The ginormous iceberg measures roughly 490 square miles (1,270 square km) and is nearly 500 feet (150 meters) thick, according to the British Antarctic Survey. … Continued

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A Huge Red Flag Just Popped Up in a Little-Studied Region of Antarctica

Glaciers in Antarctica are turning the concept of “glacial pace” on its head. A new study of a little-observed area on the continent finds that rising heat is making ice streams flow faster, which has worrisome consequences for sea level rise. The study, published this week in Nature Communications, uses a quarter century of satellite … Continued

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Glacier Breaks, Unleashing a Monster Flash Flood in Himalayas

At least 20 people are dead and up to 125 still missing after a piece of a glacier in the Himalayas collapsed on Sunday, causing flash floods and destroying a dam in its path. Video footage shows a colossal rush of water and rocks roaring through a mountain valley in the northern Indian state of … Continued

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Once the World’s Largest Iceberg, A68a Is Now a Shattered Mess

The latest satellite imagery suggests iceberg A68a is in its death throes, as the once-colossal iceberg has deteriorated rapidly over the past week. In its prime, A68a, which detached itself from Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf in 2017, measured 2,240-square-miles (5,800 square kilometers) in size, becoming one of the biggest icebergs ever recorded. At the … Continued

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This 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

EartherEarth Science

Researchers Discover Antarctic Ice Shelf ‘Alive’ With Tiny Icequakes

For about six to 12 hours as the sun dips low on the horizon in the late spring and early summer, an Antarctic ice shelf comes alive. Tiny quakes rattle the ice by the hundreds of thousands—and their existence could help scientists track how glaciers are melting across the frozen continent. These quakes, documented in … Continued

EartherEarth Science

An Iceberg 30 Times the Size of Manhattan Is About to Break Off Antarctica

An Antarctic ice shelf that’s been cracking up for years is now very close to giving birth to an iceberg roughly 30 times the size of Manhattan. With a long-term scientific research station right in the neighborhood, the far-flung event is being watched closely, and with some trepidation. On Wednesday, NASA released a new image … Continued

EartherClimate Change

There May Be Troves of Liquid Water Hiding in Greenland’s Ice

Greenland may look like a big solid hunk of ice. But hidden beneath that shiny surface, the truth is a bit more complicated. A first-of-its-kind analysis has revealed a surprising amount of liquid water encased in solid ice inside West Greenland’s Store Glacier. Alex Kendrick, a geophysics Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University, discovered the hidden … Continued

EartherEarth Science

New Super-High-Resolution Map Shows Antarctica In Unprecedented Detail

We’ve seen a lot of good maps of Earth’s polar regions of late. A map that shows the thickness of the entire Antarctic ice sheet. Another that shows Greenland’s hidden bedrock contours in unprecedented detail. But a new terrain map of Antarctica is still special. It’s not just the highest resolution ever produced for the … Continued

EartherEarth Science

NASA’s New Space Laser Will Track Earth’s Vanishing Ice

On September 15, NASA will launch a laser 310 miles above the Earth to scan our planet’s ice sheets like never before, recording changes in the elevation of these frozen landscapes down to the width of a pencil. The laser, which lives aboard NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), will shower the Earth … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Giant Iceberg Is Screwed

There’s no shortage of going-ons on Earth that astronauts can see from space: auroras, towering clouds, volcanic eruptions. Now, there’s a grim addition to the list: a (once) massive iceberg that’s got a date with death. In March 2000, the biggest iceberg ever to peel off the Ross Ice Shelf began its 18-year trek in … Continued

EartherEarth Science

There Are Earthquakes Going Off Beneath East Antarctica’s Ice

If there’s a final frontier on the surface of our planet, it’s East Antarctica, a vast region of largely-unexplored mountains and canyons covered in a mantle of ice thousands of feet thick. The latest indication of how little we know about East Antarctica? We basically just learned it’s seismically active. Until now, exactly nine seismic … Continued

EartherEarth Science

Antarctica Is Getting Snowier

The world’s largest hunk of ice, the Antarctic ice sheet, holds enough frozen water to put cities like Miami several hundred feet under. How much Antarctica shrinks in the future will depend on the balance between what’s melting away, and what’s being added when it snows. A new study published in the journal Climate of … Continued

EartherEarth Science

Sea Ice Has Foiled an Attempt to Reach Antarctica’s Massive Iceberg

A first-of-its-kind mission to study a patch of the Antarctic seafloor that was exposed when the continent calved a trillion ton iceberg last year has been thwarted….by ice. Such is the price of doing research in Antarctica. In February, an international team of scientists led by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) embarked on a planned … Continued

EartherClimate Change

New Maps Show Us Where Antarctica Is Shrinking Fastest

If even a fraction of Antarctica’s ice melts, the resultant sea level rise will reshape coastlines around the world. A new study gets us one step closer to predicting if and when that will happen, by mapping the motion of ice across the entire continent. The study, published this month in the journal The Cryosphere, … Continued