Tag Archive for 'Glacier'

An artist’s impression of a ‘Snowball Earth.’ Image credit: NASA.

Giant Glaciers Reshaped Earth’s Surface and Paved Way for Complex Life

Feb 26, 2025 by News Staff

By chemically analyzing crystals in ancient rocks, scientists from Curtin University, the University of Portsmouth and St. Francis Xavier University discovered...

Biologists Find Giant Viruses in Samples from Greenland Ice Sheet

Jun 5, 2024 by News Staff

Giant viruses were first discovered in 1981, when researchers found them in the ocean. These viruses had specialized in infecting green algae in the sea....

Noctis Mons. Image credit: NASA / USGS / Lee et al.

Planetary Scientists Discover Giant Shield Volcano on Mars

Mar 13, 2024 by News Staff

Provisionally designated Noctis Mons, the newly-discovered volcano is located just south of Mars’ equator, in Eastern Noctis Labyrinthus, west of Valles...

A relict glacier near Mars’ equator. Image credit: Lee et al. / LPSC 2023 / NASA.

Relict Glacier Spotted near Martian Equator

Mar 20, 2023 by News Staff

A so-called light-toned deposit (LTD) in Eastern Noctis Labyrinthus, about 160 km (99.4 miles) north-west of Oudemans crater near Mars’ equator, presents...

Kopakaius nicolae. Scale bar - 50 µm. Image credit: Zawierucha et al., doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2022.107634.

Two New Species of Glacier Tardigrades Discovered in New Zealand

Oct 7, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Biologists have described two new tardigrade genera and associated species — two of which are new to science — from the mountain glaciers of...

This image, taken on December 17, 2012 by ESA’s Mars Express, shows the icy cap that covers Mars’ south pole, composed of frozen water and carbon dioxide. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / Bill Dunford.

Martian Deposits of Carbon Dioxide Ice Flow as Glaciers: Study

May 3, 2022 by News Staff

Carbon dioxide ice is found in a stack of deposits at the south pole of Mars. These deposits are situated in basins, where they reach more than 1 km thick....

(A, B) the Nujiang pit viper (Gloydius lipipengi) and (C, D) the Glacier pit viper (Gloydius swild). Image credit: Shi et al., doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1061.70420.

Two New Species of Venomous Snakes Discovered

Oct 6, 2021 by News Staff

Scientists have described two new species of pit vipers in the genus Gloydius from Zayu in Tibet and Heishui in Sichuan, China. (A, B) the Nujiang pit...

Yao Tandong, left, and Lonnie Thompson, right, process an ice core drilled from the Guliya ice cap in the Tibetan Plateau in 2015. Image credit: Lonnie Thompson.

Scientists Find 14,400-Year-Old Microbes and Viruses in Tibetan Glacier Ice

Jul 20, 2021 by News Staff

Microbiologists at the Ohio State University have found that the ancient bacteria and their phages (bacteria-infecting viruses) from Tibetan glacier ice...

Visible images with sketch maps showing major geologic features within as-yet unnamed crater mapped by Boatwright & Head: (a) the 54-km-diameter crater in the southern highlands of Mars (20.3°S, 42.6°E); no inlet or outlet breaches are observed; ridge networks (blue) begin near the crater wall base, where they are coincident with upslope-facing scarps (dashed lines) and crater wall alcoves; ridges terminate in two paleolake basins (cyan and green); (b) morphology of the eastern ridge network transitions downslope from dense proximal ridges to more widely spaced medial ridges; several medial ridges then converge into a single trunk ridge; (c) the southern ridge network terminates at three separate points along the margin of basin II. One of the ridges also displays an anabranching morphology. Image credit: Boatwright & Head, doi: 10.3847/PSJ/abe773.

New Type of Paleolake Spotted on Mars

Mar 31, 2021 by News Staff

A 54-km- (33.5-mile) diameter Noachian-aged crater with neither inlet nor outlet channels is distinct from previously documented crater basin lakes on...

The Venus of Willendorf, an 11.1-cm- (4.4-inch) tall Venus figurine estimated to have been made 30,000 BCE, in Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria. Image credit: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Upper Paleolithic Figurines Showing Women with Obesity May Be Linked to Climate Change

Dec 2, 2020 by News Staff

Obesity is rare in hunter-gatherer cultures. Nevertheless, dozens of handheld ‘Venus’ figurines — the oldest art sculptures of humans known and...

Ohio State University researchers cut an ice core retrieved from the Guliya ice cap in the Kunlun Mountains in Tibet in 2015. Image credit: Giuliano Bertagna, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, Ohio State University.

15,000-Year-Old Viruses and Bacteria Found in Glacier Ice from Tibet

Jan 31, 2020 by Natali Anderson

A team of U.S. researchers has found ancient viruses and bacteria in ice from two cores drilled on the summit and plateau of the Guliya ice cap in northwestern...

Bed elevation of the Antarctic ice sheet color coded between minus 2 and 1 km (minus 1.2 and 0.6 miles) above sea level. The white lines delineate the basins from the ice sheet mass balance inter-comparison exercise (IMBIE). Image credit: Morlighem et al, doi: 10.1038/s41561-019-0510-8.

Scientists Create New Bed Topography Map of Earth’s Southernmost Continent

Dec 16, 2019 by News Staff

BedMachine Antarctica is a new bed topography map based on ice thickness data from different research institutes dating back to 1967, encompassing nearly...

Namibia’s drumlins were formed by fast-moving ice floes instead of slow melting ice. Image credit: West Virginia University.

Geologists Find Evidence of Paleozoic Ice Age in Southern Africa

Feb 6, 2019 by News Staff

While exploring Namibia, the desert country in southern Africa, a team of geologists from West Virginia University stumbled upon a peculiar land formation...

Still from the Baltoro glacier animation. Image credit: Frank Paul / Cryosphere / USGS / NASA / CC-BY 3.0.

Animated Satellite Images Reveal Glaciers in Motion

Nov 26, 2015 by News Staff

Animations that compress more than two decades of satellite images into one second reveal the complex behavior and flow of glaciers in the Karakoram mountain...

Oblique view of the Phlegra Montes region showing remnant glacier and eskers. Image credit: NASA.

Scientists Find Evidence of Meltwater Flows beneath Ancient Glacier on Mars

Oct 1, 2015 by News Staff

A team of European planetary scientists has found direct evidence of melting and significant flows of liquid water beneath a degraded glacier in the southern...

Jakobshavn glacier, also known as Sermeq Kujalleq and the Jakobshavn Isbræ, is a large glacier in West Greenland and is among the world’s most dynamic glaciers. Radar images from ESA’s Sentinel-1A captured the glacier before and after a massive calving event, which took place between 14 and 16 August 2015. The image composite includes different Sentinel-1A images from 27 July, and 13 and 19 August. The red, green and blue indicate the position of the calving front and other dynamic features on each respective date. Image credit: Copernicus Sentinel data /ESA.

Sentinel-1A Satellite Catches Jakobshavn Glacier Shedding Ice

Aug 24, 2015 by News Staff

Images from European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1A satellite show that Greenland’s Jakobshavn glacier, the fastest moving glacier in the world, shed a...

Helheim Glacier. Image credit: Nick Selmes / Swansea University.

Scientists Determine What Causes Glacial Earthquakes

Jun 26, 2015 by News Staff

A group of geoscientists led by Dr Tavi Murray of Swansea University, UK, has shown that during the glacier edge breaking process, known as calving, the...

Everest and Khumbu glacier in the Dudh Koshi basin. Image credit: Patrick Wagnon.

Everest Glaciers Very Sensitive to Global Warming, Researchers Say

May 28, 2015 by News Staff

According to a team of scientists led by Dr Joseph Shea of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development in Kathmandu, Nepal, if greenhouse-gas...

Nearly cloud-free view of the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Image credit: NASA / GSFC / MODIS Rapid Response Team.

Researchers Observe Sudden Increase of Ice Loss on Southern Antarctic Peninsula

May 22, 2015 by News Staff

Using measurements of the elevation of the Antarctic ice sheet made by a suite of satellites, a group of scientists led by Dr Bert Wouters from the University...

Mars has massive water glacier belts at its central latitudes. Image credit: Nanna Karlsson / Mars Digital Image Model / NASA.

Planetary Scientists Calculate Volume of Water Ice in Martian Glacier Belts

Apr 8, 2015 by News Staff

A team of planetary scientists led by Dr Nanna Bjørnholt Karlsson from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, has calculated the total volume of water...