glacier Archives

Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

How Ancient Glaciers Helped Life Evolve On Earth

by Keith CowingApril 6, 2025April 6, 2025

New Curtin University research has revealed how massive ancient glaciers acted like giant bulldozers, reshaping Earth’s surface and paving the way for complex life to flourish.

A drone landed on the Greenland snow surface at EastGRIP.(Credit: Kevin Rozmiarek/CU Boulder)

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Cryobiology, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Sample Return, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Ice Planet Recon: Drone Experiment Reveals How Greenland’s Ice Sheet Is Changing

by Keith CowingMarch 28, 2025March 28, 2025

For the first time, researchers have collected detailed measurements of water vapor high above the surface of the Greenland ice sheet. Their research, aided by a custom-designed drone, could help […]

a The black square in the map insert shows the location of the sampling site, located close to the PROMICE station QAS_M, upwind and next to the ice camp to minimize potential contamination. b Incubation of unfiltered melted ice samples in replicate serum bottles on the surface of the ice sheet. c Microscopic image of the supraglacial community prior incubation. Black arrows indicate fungal hyphae, and white arrows point to putatively dead Ancylonema nordenskiöldii cells, potentially infected by parasitic fungi. d Microscopic image of the supraglacial glacier ice algae, Ancylonema nordenskiöldii. Scale bars in (c) and (d) are 10 µm. -- Nature Communications

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Microbiology & Virology, Polar / Alpine Expeditions, Status Report

Single-cell Imaging Reveals Efficient Nutrient Uptake And Growth Of Microalgae Darkening The Greenland Ice Sheet

by Keith CowingMarch 18, 2025March 18, 2025

Blooms of dark pigmented microalgae accelerate glacier and ice sheet melting by reducing the surface albedo.

Bedmap3 reveals new insights into the topography of Antarctica. From Bedmap3 updated ice bed, surface and thickness gridded datasets for Antarctica by Pritchard, H., et al.

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Exploration Gear & Tech, Icy Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

New Map Of The Landscape Beneath Antarctica’s Ice Unveiled

by Keith CowingMarch 14, 2025March 14, 2025

Antarctica’s ice sheet has been assembled by a team of international scientists led from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

Snowball Earth -- Grok via Astrobiology.com

Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

The Neoproterozoic Glacial Broom

by Keith CowingMarch 10, 2025March 9, 2025

Neoproterozoic snowball Earth events reflect globally frigid conditions thought to have stimulated changes in geochemical cycling with planetary biotic response. We investigated the impact of these events on sediment dynamics, […]

Snapshot of surface speed in the ACCESS-OM2-01 model. The daily-averaged surface speed on 31 December 1990 in the final cycle of the RYF simulation is shown. -- Environmental Research Letters

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Ice Planet, Ocean Planet: Melting Antarctic Ice Sheets will slow Earth’s Strongest Ocean Current

by Keith CowingMarch 4, 2025September 18, 2025

Melting ice sheets are slowing the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), the world’s strongest ocean current, researchers have found.

On its own, Earth would shift toward another ice age in about 10,000 years, scientists say. But humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions may have radically shifted the climates trajectory. CreditMatt Perko, UC Santa Barbara

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Icy Worlds, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Matching Earth’s Ice Age Cycles With Orbital Shifts

by Keith CowingMarch 1, 2025March 1, 2025

Beginning around 2.5 million years ago, Earth entered an era marked by successive ice ages and interglacial periods, emerging from the last glaciation around 11,700 years ago. A new analysis […]

NISAR in Orbit Over Antarctica (Artist's Concept) Larger image

Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release

Using Orbital Radar To Explore An Ice Planet

by Keith CowingFebruary 5, 2025

This artist’s concept depicts the NISAR satellite orbiting Earth over Antarctica. Short for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, the mission is an equal collaboration between the NASA and the Indian Space […]

Caption: At left: Steel is seen to corrode into siderite (FeCO3) when immersed in subcritical liquid carbon dioxide (LCO2). At right: Samples of albite (a plagioclase feldspar) and a sandstone core are observed to form red rhodochrosite (MnCO3) when exposed to supercritical CO2 in the presence of a water solution with potassium chloride and manganese chloride, with particularly strong reaction near the interface of the two solutions. In both experiments, water saturation is provided by floating LCO2 on the water. Under the lower pressure conditions characteristic of early Mars, the water would float on the LCO2. Credits: Photos courtesy of Todd Schaef/PNNL (left) and Earl Mattson/Mattson Hydrology (right).

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Liquid On Mars Was Not Necessarily All Water

by Keith CowingDecember 7, 2024December 7, 2024

Dry river channels and lake beds on Mars point to the long-ago presence of a liquid on the planet’s surface, and the minerals observed from orbit and from landers seem […]

Photographs of Tava injectites within a darker-colored, red-brown to purple host comprising sandstone ridges. Outcrops (A) and (C) and their sketch overlays (B) and (D), respectively, showing 1st-(purple) and 2nd-(gold) generation injectites. Locations are North Cheyenne Canyon (A, B) and Manitou Springs (C, D). (A-B) are repeated from the main text figures but display further highlighted details. Study locations are shown in Fig. S2. -- PNAS

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Cryobiology, Extinction events, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Hematite U-Pb Dating Of Snowball Earth Meltwater Events

by Keith CowingDecember 2, 2024December 2, 2024

The Snowball Earth hypothesis predicts global ice cover; however, previous descriptions of Cryogenian (720-635 Ma) glacial deposits are limited to continental margins and shallow marine basins.