The World's Glaciers

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Glaciers have the Wrong Business Model

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Climate Change is Melting Mount Rainier's Glaciers at Unprecedented Rates

http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/11393/20141222/climate-change-is-melting-mount-rainiers-glaciers-at-unprecedented-rates.htm

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Nice slide show

 

Mount Kenya’s Vanishing Glaciers

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/magazine/mount-kenyas-vanishing-glaciers.html

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Marinelli Glacier Retreat, Chile

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Roncagli Glacier Retreat, Tierra del Fuego, Chile

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Anderson Glacier, Olympic Mountains, Washington Disappears

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Tunsbergdalsbreen, Norway continues to retreat rapidly in 2014

 

Tunsbergdalsbreen Glacier Retreat, Norway

Edited January 12, 2015 by knocker

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Stephenson Glacier Retreat and Lagoon Development, Heard Island

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Remote sensing of rapidly diminishing tropical glaciers in the northern Andes.

 

Abstract

 

This chapter presents an overview of some of the changes recently observed on glaciated areas in the tropical Andes of South America. Tropical glaciers are exceptional indicators of shifts in tropical climate. And the Andes are home to almost 99% of the world’s tropical ice cover. (Kaser et al. 1996). Many of the glaciated cordilleras in the northern Andes are mere remnants of what existed 50 years ago. Here we present a history of deglaciation of the Quelccaya Ice Cap in Peru, the largest body of ice in the tropics, which has lost approximately 30% of its total area in the last 35 years; the Cordillera Blanca, a glaciated range in Peru, which has lost over 20% of its area in the same period; glaciers in Colombia that have lost between 20-50% or more of their areas in the last few decades. Tres Cruces, a glaciated area in Bolivia, which has lost over half its area; and one glacier in Venezuela that has lost over 90% of its area. These changes are quite representative of overall glacier retreat throughout the tropical Andes.

 

Source

Global Land Ice Measurements from Space, Springer.

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Study: Melting glaciers have big carbon impact

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-01/fsu-smg011615.php

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Verra Grande Glacier Retreat, Italy

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Crevasse Reduction and Retreat of Salisbury Snowfield-Almer Glacier, New Zealand

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Iceland rises as its glaciers melt from climate change

 

The Earth's crust under Iceland is rebounding as global warming melts the island's great ice caps, a University of Arizona-led team reports in an upcoming issue of Geophysical Research Letters.

 

The paper is the first to show the current fast uplift of the Icelandic crust is a result of accelerated melting of the island's glaciers and coincides with the onset of warming that began about 30 years ago, the scientists said.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-01/uoa-ira012815.php

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http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014GL062255/abstract

 

" LONDON—An ice cap in the high Arctic has lost what British scientists say is a significant amount of ice in an unusually short time.

It has thinned by more than 50 metres since 2012—about one sixth of its original thickness—and the ice flow is now 25 times faster, accelerating to speeds of several kilometres per year."

 

I think the other place had better take note of these dynamics? Not just the starving polar Bears on the Island eh?

 

Imagine what awaits us once we see the major ocean terminating Glaciers around Greenland pass there 'lips' and flow into the inland basin? Should the speed of decay repeat there then any question of 'Sea Level Rise' will be made moot ( imagine how many Cm's a year we will see when the likes of Peterman loses dimensions as Austfonna has since 2012????

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Southwest Brazeau Icefield Retreat, Alberta

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Earthquakes Rattling Glaciers, Boosting Sea Level Rise

 

Talk of earthquakes likely calls to mind giant fissures opening up along the earth’s crust, the trembling of rock, buildings crumbling to their knees and, depending on your age and cast of mind, the love of Superman for Lois Lane. But it does not likely conjure up images of giant tongues of sliding ice or the splash of calving icebergs. And yet it should.

 

http://glacierhub.org/2015/01/30/earthquakes-rattling-glaciers-boosting-sea-level-rise/?utm_source=GlacierHub.org+Newsletter&utm_campaign=59e8a8d27d-Weekly_newsletter2_02_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49bd6e0929-59e8a8d27d-269538853

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Bertrab Glacier Retreat, South Georgia Island

 

Bertrab Glacier is on the east coast of South Georgia Island.  The change in glacier terminusposition has been documented by Alison Cook at British Antarctic Survey in a BAS retreat map.  In 1958 it reached the coast in Gold Harbor. Gordon et al., (2008) observed that larger tidewater and sea-calving valley and outlet glaciers generally remained in relatively advanced positions until the 1980s. For Bertrab Glacier the retreat was minimal from 1958 to 1989. Since 1989 a whole new embayment has opened.  Here we examine Landsat imagery from 1989 to 2015 to visualize and update this change.

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Glacier-surge mechanisms promoted by a hydro-thermodynamic feedback to summer melt

 

Abstract. Mass loss from glaciers and ice sheets currently accounts for two-thirds of the observed global sea-level rise and has accelerated since the 1990s, coincident with strong atmospheric warming in the polar regions. Here we present continuous GPS measurements and satellite synthetic-aperture-radar-based velocity maps from Basin-3, the largest drainage basin of the Austfonna ice cap, Svalbard. Our observations demonstrate strong links between surface-melt and multiannual ice-flow acceleration. We identify a hydro-thermodynamic feedback that successively mobilizes stagnant ice regions, initially frozen to their bed, thereby facilitating fast basal motion over an expanding area. By autumn 2012, successive destabilization of the marine terminus escalated in a surge of Basin-3. The resulting iceberg discharge of 4.2±1.6 Gt a^−1 over the period April 2012 to May 2013 triples the calving loss from the entire ice cap. With the seawater displacement by the terminus advance accounted for, the related sea-level rise contribution amounts to 7.2±2.6 Gt a^−1. This rate matches the annual ice-mass loss from the entire Svalbard archipelago over the period 2003–2008, highlighting the importance of dynamic mass loss for glacier mass balance and sea-level rise. The active role of surface melt, i.e. external forcing, contrasts with previous views of glacier surges as purely internal dynamic instabilities. Given sustained climatic warming and rising significance of surface melt, we propose a potential impact of the hydro-thermodynamic feedback on the future stability of ice-sheet regions, namely at the presence of a cold-based marginal ice plug that restricts fast drainage of inland ice. The possibility of large-scale dynamic instabilities such as the partial disintegration of ice sheets is acknowledged but not quantified in global projections of sea-level rise.

 

http://www.the-cryosphere.net/9/197/2015/tc-9-197-2015.pdf

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Ancient snow patches melting at record speed

 

Norway is dotted with small glaciers and permanent snow patches that contain all sorts of archaeological treasures, from ancient shoes to 5000-year-old arrowheads. But climate change has turned up the temperature on these snowfields and they are vanishing at an astonishing rate.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-02-ancient-patches.html#jCp

 

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Weddel Glacier Thinning-Retreat, South Georgia Island

 

Weddel Glacier is on the southeast coast of South Georgia Island.  It terminates in Beaufoy Cove just north of Gold Harbor.The change in glacier terminus position has been documented by Alison Cook at British Antarctic Survey in a BAS retreat map.  In 1958 it reached within 400 m of the coast at the outlet of Beaufoy Cove. Gordon et al., (2008) observed that larger tidewater and sea-calving valley and outlet glaciers generally remained in relatively advanced positions until the 1980s. For Weddel Glacier the retreat was rapid from 1960 to 1974 and was slow from 1992-2003.  Here we examine Landsat imagery from 1989 to 2015 to visualize and update this change.

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Eiriksjökull Reeat, Iceland

 

Eiriksjökull  is an ice cap just west of Langjökull In central Iceland.  Here we examine its main western outlet the Braekur using Landsat imagery from 1989 to 2014.  The Icelandic Glaciological Society website on terminus variations is the source of the map for the glacier. The IGS program monitors 50 glaciers, all of them are currently retreating.  Eiriksjökull ,  is not one that is in this monitoring program.

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Fox Glacier's spectacular retreat

 

In a series of ice collapses, Fox Glacier retreated by around 300 m between January 2014 and January 2015. As the glacier has thinned over the last few years it has destabilised the side of the valley and you can watch the hillside collapse day by day. Before the first collapse you can see guided groups walking on tracks on the ice, and the whole time people watch from a safe view point (bottom right). This timelapse video is made from (mostly) daily images of the glacier.

 

https://vimeo.com/119312940

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The glaciers of the Hindu Kush Himalayas: current status and observed changes from the 1980s to 2010

 

The fate of the Hindu Kush Himalayan glaciers has been a topic of heated debate due to their rapid melting and retreat. The underlying reason for the debate is the lack of systematic large-scale observations of the extent of glaciers in the region owing to the high altitude, remoteness of the terrain, and extreme climatic conditions. Here we present a remote sensing–based comprehensive assessment of the current status and observed changes in the glacier extent of the Hindu Kush Himalayas. It reveals highly heterogeneous, yet undeniable impacts of climate change.

 

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07900627.2015.1005731#.VOFIQp3F8vl

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Does black soot impact on glacier behaviour in Kashmir?

 

Kashmir has three times more soot than neighbouring states

 

SRINAGAR: The quantum of black carbon (BC) and other particulate matter (PM) in Kashmir's atmosphere is three times that of its neighbouring states, a study has revealed. That could be a reason why the glaciers are shrinking and why weather patterns are changing. "Kashmir is surrounded by three mountain ranges and in the last 60 years, Shamsbari and Pir Panchal ranges have lost all their glaciers," earth scientist Shakil Ramshoo told ET.

 

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-02-14/news/59142479_1_black-carbon-glaciers-kashmir

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Two hundred and thirty years of glacial retreat at the Glacier du Rhône.

https://twitter.com/alex_roddie/status/569551760819412994/photo/1