Ice Ages News

June 7, 2024

Top Headlines

Giant Viruses Found on Greenland Ice Sheet

June 4, 2024 — Giant viruses found on the Greenland ice sheet probably regulate the growth of snow algae on the ice by infecting them. Knowing how to control these viruses could help us reduce the rate of ...

Arctic Melting Heavily Influenced by Little-Studied Meteorological Phenomena

June 3, 2024 — A team of scientists has combined paleoclimatic data from the last 2,000 years with powerful computer modeling and in-the-field research on lake sediments and tree rings to show that an understudied ...

Crucial Shift in River Nile's Evolution During Ancient Egypt Discovered

June 3, 2024 — Researchers have explored how the River Nile evolved over the past 11,500 years and how changes in its geography could have helped shape the fortunes of ancient Egyptian civilization. Research reveals a major shift in the Nile around four thousand ...

Microscopic Defects in Ice Shape How Massive Glaciers Flow, Study Shows

June 3, 2024 — A glacier's flow depends on how microscopic defects move through the ice, according to new research that also yielded a new model for predicting how glaciers will flow, ultimately contributing to sea-level ...

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Thawing Permafrost: Not a Climate Tipping Element, but Nevertheless Far-Reaching Impacts

June 3, 2024 — Permafrost soils store large quantities of organic carbon and are often portrayed as a critical tipping element in the Earth system, which, once ...

Local Bright Spot Among Melting Glaciers: 2000 Km of Antarctic Ice-Covered Coastline Has Been Stable for 85 Years

May 30, 2024 — A whaler's forgotten aerial photos from 1937 have given researchers the most detailed picture of the ice evolution in East Antarctica to date. The ...

Historic Iceberg Surges Offer Insights on Modern Climate Change

May 30, 2024 — A great armada entered the North Atlantic, launched from the cold shores of North America. But rather than ships off to war, this force was a fleet of icebergs. And the havoc it wrought was to the ...

Future Climate Impacts Put Whale Diet at Risk

May 22, 2024 — A new study predicts future climate change impacts could disrupt the krill-heavy diet that humpback whales in the southern hemisphere ...

New Insights Into the Degradation Dynamics of Organic Material in the Seafloor

May 22, 2024 — Many processes in the deep sea are not yet well understood, and the role of microbial communities in particular is often a big unknown. This ...

Record Low Antarctic Sea Ice 'Extremely Unlikely' Without Climate Change

May 20, 2024 — Scientists have found that the record-low levels of sea ice around Antarctica in 2023 were extremely unlikely to happen without the influence of climate change. This low was a one-in-a-2000-year ...

'Vigorous Melting' at Antarctica's Thwaites 'Doomsday' Glacier

May 20, 2024 — Glaciologists show evidence of warm ocean water intruding kilometers beneath grounded ice at Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica. The findings suggest that existing climate models are underestimating ...

GPS Stations Measure Daily Ice Loss in Greenland

May 14, 2024 — Monitoring the effects of climate change in Greenland has been made much easier with an innovative ...

2023 Was the Hottest Summer in Two Thousand Years

May 14, 2024 — Researchers have found that 2023 was the hottest summer in the Northern Hemisphere in the past two thousand years, almost four degrees warmer than the coldest summer during the same ...

Today's World: Fastest Rate of Carbon Dioxide Rise Over the Last 50,000 Years

May 13, 2024 — Today's rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide increase is 10 times faster than at any other point in the past 50,000 years, researchers have found ...

It Flickers, Then It Tips -- Study Identifies Early Warning Signals for the End of the African Humid Period

May 7, 2024 — Tipping points in the climate system can be the result of a slow but linear development. However, they can also be accompanied by a 'flickering', with two stable climatic states that ...

Did a Magnetic Field Collapse Trigger the Emergence of Animals?

May 3, 2024 — Researchers uncovered compelling evidence that Earth's magnetic field was in a highly unusual state when the macroscopic animals of the Ediacaran Period -- 635 to 541 million years ago -- ...

Ice Shelves Fracture Under Weight of Meltwater Lakes

May 3, 2024 — Heavy pooling meltwater can fracture ice, potentially leading to ice shelf ...

Mystery Behind Huge Opening in Antarctic Sea Ice Solved

May 1, 2024 — Researchers have discovered the missing piece of the puzzle behind a rare opening in the sea ice around Antarctica, which was nearly twice the size of Wales and occurred during the winters of 2016 ...

Scientists Show Ancient Village Adapted to Drought, Rising Seas

Apr. 30, 2024 — Researchers have unveiled evidence for ancient human resilience to climate change in the Eastern ...

Ancient Maya Blessed Their Ballcourts

Apr. 26, 2024 — Using environmental DNA analysis, an international team of researchers identified a collection of plants used in ceremonial rituals in the ancient Maya city of Yaxnohcah in Mexico. The plants, known ...

Researchers Find Oldest Undisputed Evidence of Earth's Magnetic Field

Apr. 24, 2024 — A new study has recovered a 3.7-billion-year-old record of Earth's magnetic field, and found that it appears remarkably similar to the field surrounding Earth ...

Warming Climate Is Putting More Metals Into Colorado's Mountain Streams

Apr. 23, 2024 — Warming temperatures are causing a steady rise in copper, zinc and sulfate in the waters of Colorado mountain streams affected by acid rock drainage. Concentrations of these metals have roughly ...

Feedback Loop That Is Melting Ice Shelves in West Antarctica Revealed

Apr. 22, 2024 — New research has uncovered a feedback loop that may be accelerating the melting of the floating portions of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, pushing up global sea levels. The study sheds new light on ...

Data-Driven Music: Converting Climate Measurements Into Music

Apr. 18, 2024 — A geo-environmental scientist from Japan has composed a string quartet using sonified climate data. The 6-minute-long composition -- entitled 'String Quartet No. 1 'Polar Energy ...

Ice Age Climate Analysis Reduces Worst-Case Warming Expected from Rising CO2

Apr. 17, 2024 — A detailed reconstruction of climate during the most recent ice age, when a large swath of North America was covered in ice, provides information on the relationship between CO2 and global ...

Paradox of Extreme Cold Events in a Warming World

Apr. 17, 2024 — The Warm Arctic-Cold Continent (WACC) phenomenon is the puzzling combination of Arctic warming and extreme coldness in specific mid-latitude regions. However, the progression of WACC events remains ...

Yellowstone Lake Ice Cover Unchanged Despite Warming Climate

Apr. 16, 2024 — While most lakes around the world are experiencing shorter durations of ice cover, the length of time that Yellowstone Lake is covered by ice each year has not changed in the past century, possibly ...

New Radar Analysis Method Can Improve Winter River Safety

Apr. 15, 2024 — Researchers have developed a way to use radar to detect open water zones and other changes in Alaska's frozen rivers in the early winter. The approach can be automated to provide current hazard ...

Ocean Currents Threaten to Collapse Antarctic Ice Shelves

Apr. 11, 2024 — Meandering ocean currents play an important role in the melting of Antarctic ice shelves, threatening a significant rise in sea ...

New Approach Needed to Save Australia's Non-Perennial Rivers

Apr. 10, 2024 — An extensive review of current research incorporating geomorphology, hydrology, biogeochemistry, ecology and Indigenous knowledges identifies prevailing factors that shape water and energy flows in ...

Tiny Plastic Particles Are Found Everywhere

Apr. 9, 2024 — Microplastic particles can be found in the most remote ocean regions on earth. In Antarctica, pollution levels are even higher than previously ...

Humans Can Increase Biodiversity, Archaeological Study Shows

Apr. 9, 2024 — Through the ages, the presence of humans has increased the heterogeneity and complexity of ecosystems and has often had a positive effect on their ...

Climate Change Threatens Antarctic Meteorites

Apr. 8, 2024 — Antarctica harbors a large concentration of meteorites imbuing the icy continent with an unparalleled wealth of information on our solar system. However, these precious meteorites are rapidly ...

These Plants Evolved in Florida Millions of Years Ago: They May Be Gone in Decades

Apr. 2, 2024 — Scrub mints are among the most endangered plants you've probably never heard of. More than half of the 24 species currently known to exist are considered threatened or endangered at the state or ...