513 COVER A jumble of icebergs forms in front of the heavily crevassed calving front of Jakobshavn Isbrae, one of the fastest outlet glaciers draining the Greenland Ice Sheet. The ~5-kilometer-wide ice front rises ~80 meters out of the water and extends more than 600 meters underwater. Recent research shows that the speeds of Greenland glaciers are increasing. See page 576.

This paper by Lawson and co-workers reports very interesting results with regard to low molecular weight DOC (LMW-DOC) speciation and abundance in basal ice from glaciers that have different organic and lithological substrates and thermal regimes. The case is made that these LMW-DOC compounds may support and/or be a product of biogeochemical activity beneath glaciers with consequence to regiona...

[1] In 2003, Ekström et al. reported on the detection of a new class of earthquakes that occur in glaciated regions, with the vast majority being in Greenland. The events have a characteristic radiation pattern and lack the high-frequency content typical of tectonic earthquakes. It was proposed that the events correspond to large and sudden sliding motion of glaciers. Here we present an analysi...

Introduction: Basal-ice and surface-ice temperatures are key parameters governing the style of glacial erosion and deposition. Temperate glaciers contain basal ice at the pressure-melting point (wet-based) and commonly exhibit extensive areas of surface melting. Such conditions foster basal plucking and abrasion, as well as deposition of thick matrix-supported drift sheets, moraines, and glacio...

Glaciers offer the potential to reconstruct past climate over timescales from decades to millennia. They are found on nearly every continent, and at the Last Glacial Maximum, glaciers were larger in all regions on Earth. The physics of glacier-climate interaction are relatively well understood, and glacier models can be used to reconstruct past climate from geological evidence of past glacier e...