Surge-type Black Rapids Glacier, Alaska, has undergone strong retreat since it last surged in 1936–1937. To assess its evolution during the late Twentieth and Twenty-first centuries and determine potential implications for surge likelihood, we run a simplified glacier model over the periods 1980–2015 (hindcasting) and 2015–2100 (forecasting). The model is forced by daily temperature and precipi...

Glacier storage is a widely used term, applied to different processes and time-scales by different disciplines in hydrology and glaciology. We identify that storage occurs as ice, snow, and water associated with three time-scales. Long-term storage concerns storage of ice and firn as glaciers on time-scales of years to centuries and longer. This storage affects global sea level and long-term wa...

Glaciers cover ∼10% of the Earth's land surface, but they are shrinking rapidly across most parts of the world, leading to cascading impacts on downstream systems. Glaciers impart unique footprints on river flow at times when other water sources are low. Changes in river hydrology and morphology caused by climate-induced glacier loss are projected to be the greatest of any hydrological system, ...

Knowledge of present-day ice temperature and velocity is important in order to determine how fast a glacier will respond to present and future climate change. We apply a two-dimensional higher-order thermomechanical flowband model to simulate present-day ice temperature and velocity along the main flowline of East Rongbuk Glacier, Qomolangma (Mount Everest), Himalaya. We use recent (2005–11) ob...

Analysis of ICESat-1 data (2003-2008) shows significant surface lowering of Totten Glacier, the glacier discharging the largest volume of ice in East Antarctica, and less change on nearby Moscow University Glacier. After accounting for firn compaction anomalies, the thinning appears to coincide with fast-flowing ice indicating a dynamical origin. Here, to elucidate these observations, we apply ...

Outlet glaciers grounded on a bed that deepens inland and extends below sea level are potentially vulnerable to 'marine ice sheet instability'. This instability, which may lead to runaway ice loss, has been simulated in models, but its consequences have not been directly observed in geological records. Here we provide new surface-exposure ages from an outlet of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet that...

Tidewater glaciers deposit sediment at their terminus, thereby reducing the relative water depth. Reduced water depth can lead to increased glacier stability through decreased rates of iceberg calving, glacier thinning and submarine melting. Here we investigate sedimentation processes at the termini of Kronebreen and Kongsvegen, Svalbard. We mapped the fjord floor bathymetry in August 2009 and ...

Periods of dramatically accelerated motion, in which the flow velocity increases suddenly from about 55 cm/d to a peak of 1 00-300 cm/d and then decreases gradually over the course of a day, occurred repeatedly during June and July 1 978-8 1 in Variegated Glacier (Alaska), a surging-type glacier that surged in 1 982-83. These "mini-surges" appear to be related mechanistically to the main surge....

The temporary storage and subsequent release of water at glacial margins can cause severe flooding in downstream areas and substantially impact glacier dynamics. Alpine subglacial lakes may not be identified until they become subaerially exposed or release a jökulhlaup. We use interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) to identify and characterize three dynamic alpine subglacial lakes of ...

The Karakoram mountain range is well known for its numerous surge-type glaciers of which several have recently surged or are still doing so. Analysis of multi-temporal satellite images and digital elevation models have revealed impressive details about the related changes (e.g., in glacier length, surface elevation and flow velocities) and considerably expanded the database of known surge-type ...