Science Daily


Read science articles on the ice age, glaciation and climatology. Discover the connection between ice ages and global warming.
Updated: 19 min 34 sec ago
Leaky plumbing impedes greenland ice sheet flow
Surface meltwater that drains to the bed of the Greenland Ice Sheet each summer causes changes in ice flow that cannot be fully explained by prevailing theories.
Scientists bear witness to birth of an ice cloud
Scientists have witnessed the birth of atmospheric ice clouds, creating ice cloud crystals in the laboratory and then taking images of the process through a microscope, essentially documenting the very first steps of cloud formation.
Warmer climate threatening to northern birds
Will northern birds such as the Siberian jay and the red-flanked bluetail be gone in 50 years? There is a huge risk since a deteriorating climate for breeding is imminent. Another six species are also under threat and will require particular conservation actions in order to survive, according to a researcher who has developed a species analysis method.
Satellites observe 'traffic jams' in Antarctic Ice Stream caused by tides
Nine months of continual radar observation reveals the complex changing patterns of ice stream movement in three dimensions that can inform predictions for the speed at which the ice caps will respond to a warming climate.
Studies refute hypothesis on what caused abrupt climate change thousands of years ago
Two new studies refute the hypothesis that one or more comets/bolides struck North America approximately 12,900 years ago triggering rapid climate change and the start of the Younger Dryas period.
Arctic lakes thawing earlier each year
Arctic lakes, covered with ice during the winter months, are melting earlier each spring, research has found. The team, who monitored 13,300 lakes using satellite imagery, have shown that on average ice is breaking up one day earlier per year, based on a 14-year period between 2000 and 2013.
Rising sea level estimates require collaborative response, experts say
Policymakers and scientists must act quickly and collaboratively to help coastal areas better prepare for rising sea levels globally, say climate change experts.
Scientists measure pulse of CO<sub>2</sub> emissions during spring thaw in the Arctic
Scientists documented a spring pulse in northern Alaska in 2014 that included carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to 46 percent of the net carbon dioxide that is absorbed in the summer months and methane emissions that added 6 percent to summer fluxes. What's more, recent climate trends may make such emissions more frequent, the scientists conclude.
Earth's magnetic fields could track ocean heat, study proposes
As Earth warms, much of the extra heat is stored in the planet's ocean. Monitoring the magnitude of that heat content is difficult, but a surprising feature of the tides could help. Scientists are developing a new way to use satellite observations of magnetic fields to measure heat stored in the ocean.
What satellites can tell us about how animals will fare in a changing climate
From the Arctic to the Mojave Desert, terrestrial and marine habitats are quickly changing. Satellites are particularly well-suited to observe habitat transformation and help scientists forecast what animals might do next, suggest experts.
Sawdust reinvented into super sponge for oil spills
Oil spills could be cleaned up in the icy, rough waters of the Arctic with a chemically modified sawdust material that absorbs up to five times its weight in oil and stays afloat for at least four months.
Jersey was a must-see tourist destination for Neanderthals for over 100,000 years
Neanderthals kept coming back to a coastal cave site in Jersey from at least 180,000 years ago until around 40,000 years ago. researchers report. As part of a re-examination of La Cotte de St Brelade and its surrounding landscape, archaeologists have taken a fresh look at artefacts and mammoth bones originally excavated from within the site's granite cliffs in the 1970s.
How the Antarctic Ice Sheet is affecting climate change
An international team of researchers has concluded that the Antarctic Ice Sheet actually plays a major role in regional and global climate variability -- a discovery that may also help explain why sea ice in the Southern Hemisphere has been increasing despite the warming of the rest of the Earth.
Mysterious 'crater' on Antarctica indication of vulnerable ice sheet
The East Antarctic ice sheet is more vulnerable than expected, due to a strong wind that brings warm air and blows away the snow. Scientists combined climate models, satellite observations and on-site measurements.
Mountain glaciers are showing some of the strongest responses to climate change
Mountain glaciers move slowly and it has been hard to pin an individual glacier's retreat to a change in global climate. A new method finds that for most of the glaciers studied, the observed retreat is more than 99 percent likely due to climate change.
Reindeer are shrinking: Will Santa need more to pull his sleigh?
Often portrayed as pulling Santa’s sleigh, reindeer are a Christmas staple. Now, ecologists have found that reindeer are shrinking due to the impact of climate change on their food supplies.
Climate change likely caused deadly 2016 avalanche in Tibet
On July 17, 2016, more than 70 million tons of ice broke off from the Aru glacier in the mountains of western Tibet and tumbled into a valley below, taking the lives of nine nomadic yak herders living there. Researchers conducted a kind of forensic analysis of the disaster, and the cause was likely climate change.
Cloud formation: How feldspar acts as ice nucleus
In the atmosphere, feldspar particles act as ice nuclei that make ice crystals grow in clouds and enable precipitation. The reason was found with the help of electron microscopy observations and molecular dynamics computer modeling. The ice nucleus proper is a quasi-hidden crystal surface of the feldspar that is exposed at surface defects only. The researchers present their findings that are of major relevance to the understanding of cloud and precipitation formation in Science.
Soil fertility: Global map of soil pH
Researchers create a global map of soil pH and illuminate how it changes between wet and dry climates.
Most of Greenland ice melted to bedrock in recent geologic past, says study
Scientists have found evidence in a chunk of bedrock drilled from nearly two miles below the summit of the Greenland ice sheet that the sheet nearly disappeared for an extended time in the last million years or so. The finding casts doubt on assumptions that Greenland has been relatively stable during the recent geological past, and implies that global warming could tip it into decline more precipitously than previously thought.