Although they move slowly, glaciers do move, and this movement alters the ice as it passes over land. Likewise, a moving glacier can carry with it evidence of geologic events it has witnessed. The Bear Glacier in the Kenai Peninsula along the Gulf of Alaska bears multiple clues about its past.
Published Nov 8, 2006In the early summer of 2011, the Medvezhiy Glacier in Tajikistan slid abruptly down its valley, creating a glacial lake.
Published Jul 30, 2011The retreat of one of Austria’s largest glaciers has stranded some of its tributaries, now classified as separate glaciers.
Published Jul 3, 2015The looping medial moraines on Tajikistan’s Bivachny glacier offer a clue of periods when it surged rapidly forward.
Published Mar 17, 2015Ferrar Glacier begins at Taylor Dome and flows toward the Ross Sea. North of it, an unusual feature known as “Blood Falls” stains ice bright red in one of Antarctica’s rare dry valleys.
Published Jun 23, 2013New Zealand’s longest glacier has shrunk in recent decades. Meanwhile, the lake at its terminus has grown.
Published Mar 26, 2017The Southern Patagonian Icefield of Chile and Argentina hosts several spectacular glaciers—including Grey Glacier located in the Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. This glacier, which in 1996 had a measured total area of 270 square kilometers and a length of 28 kilometers (104 square miles in area, 17 miles long), begins in the Patagonian Andes Mountains to the west and terminates in three distinct lobes into Grey Lake (upper image).
Published Jun 25, 2007Without enough fresh snow to replenish it, Alaska’s Yakutat Glacier is in trouble.
Published Nov 26, 2018Precipitation increases and a layer of debris on the terminus have helped maintain the longest mid-latitude glacier.
Published Jan 5, 2015NIWA scientists stated that this glacier had retreated by 5 kilometers (about 3 miles) over the previous three decades. They also stated that New Zealand glaciers on the whole had lost 5.8 cubic kilometers (roughly 1.4 cubic miles) over the same time period.
Published Jan 27, 2008Acquired September 6, 2010, this natural-color image shows chunks of ice breaking off Matusevich Glacier along the coast of Antarctica.
Published Nov 7, 2010For half a century, it has been the one known Alaskan glacier to withstand the effects of climate change—until now.
Published Nov 5, 2019Acquired August 27, 2009, this false-color image shows the complex marbled surface of Alaska’s Susitna Glacier.
Published Oct 20, 2010Upsala Glacier in the Southern Patagonian Icefield calves icebergs into Lake Argentina in this astronaut photo from October 25, 2009.
Published Nov 16, 2009Where once two streams of ice merged in Greenland’s Jakobshavn Glacier, today there is division and a complex surface riddled with crevasses and melt ponds.
Published Dec 3, 2011Humboldt Glacier in the remote tropical Andes is going, going, and nearly gone.
Published Aug 27, 2018Image of the Day Land Human Presence Snow and Ice Remote Sensing
Over the past three decades, India’s Kokthang glacier has been retreating and a nearby lake has doubled in size.
Published Apr 26, 2019While most glaciers in southeast Alaska are losing an astounding amount of ice, this glacier has been relatively stable.
Published Jun 30, 2020The moraines of Malaspina glacier display a dizzying pattern of curves, zigzags, and loops.
Published Oct 11, 2015Local authorities are watching closely after a fast-advancing glacier in northern Pakistan blocked a stream and created a temporary lake.
Published May 15, 2019Retreating glaciers have changed how visitors experience Glacier Bay National Park in southeast Alaska.
Published Aug 31, 2020Image of the Day Heat Land Water Snow and Ice Remote Sensing
A piedmont-type glacier fans out across a plain in northeast Greenland.
Published Feb 20, 2015Over the past two decades, an Alaskan glacier has melted into a lake more than five times the size of Central Park.
Published May 23, 2019The fast-changing glacier is threatening a popular hiking area in the western Alps.
Published Oct 2, 2019At an altitude of roughly 5,400 meters (17,700 feet), the Siachen Glacier in Kashmir is a forbidding place.
Published Apr 23, 2006