As climate change continues, parts of the Earth system such as ice sheets, frozen soils, or the Amazon rainforest could shift—some quickly, some slowly—after crossing key thresholds or tipping points.
glaciers & ice sheets
Posted inEditors' Highlights
4D Viscosity Constraints from Greenland
The mantle’s resistance to flow appears different for glacial and plate tectonic timescales but this behavior can be reconciled with new thermo-mechanical models of the asthenosphere.
Posted inNews
Cómo el Último Máximo Glacial influenció en el origen del vino
El severo clima de la era de hielo influenció el cultivo de la vid durante el nacimiento de la agricultura.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Scotland’s Last Glaciers Cause a Shift in an Old Paradigm
Cosmogenic geochronology of Scotland’s vanished glaciers indicates that the paradigm of weakened North Atlantic currents causing a rapid regional cooling is no longer valid.
Posted inNews
Supercharged El Niño Could Speed Up Southern Ocean Warming
Projected changes to El Niño will likely accelerate warming of the deep oceans around the Antarctic, supplying heat that could drive ice loss and sea level rise.
Posted inNews
Glacial Lakes Can Unleash Deadly Deluges. How Risky Are They?
Breaches in glacial lake dams threaten millions around the world, and scientists are investigating how climate change might affect that risk.
Posted inNews
Ice Cores Record Long-Ago Seasons in Antarctica
Researchers used ice core data to reconstruct seasonal temperatures throughout the Holocene. The results link especially hot summers with patterns in Earth’s orbit.
Posted inNews
“Icefin” Investigates a Glacial Underbelly
An instrument-laden submersible reveals where—and how rapidly—the Antarctic glacier is melting.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Artificial Lake-Level Lowering Alleviates Floods in the Himalayas
A new model combining future permafrost degradation and related avalanches demonstrates that artificial lake-lowering could significantly reduce the risk of glacial lake outburst floods.
Posted inNews
Lakes Can Change How Glaciers Move
Lakes forming from melted ice can have a big effect on their parent glacier, and more of these bodies of water are appearing under warming conditions.