Snow and Avalanches News

October 29, 2026

Top Headlines

128,000-year-old Ice in Tibet Could Rewrite Climate History

Oct. 29, 2026 Ancient ice discovered high in Tibet may be more than 128,000 years old, preserving an extraordinary record of Earth's climate that scientists previously thought had been lost. The discovery reveals a rare glimpse into the last ice age and could ...

Earth's Ice Ages May Have Been Driven by a Hidden Ocean Chain Reaction

Oct. 28, 2026 Scientists have uncovered a surprising connection between Earth's opposite poles that may help explain how the planet plunged into past ice ages. New research suggests that as massive ice sheets expanded across the Northern Hemisphere, they cooled ...

Antarctica’s “Doomsday Glacier” Could Raise Sea Levels Twice as Much as Predicted

Oct. 28, 2026 Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier may be melting twice as much as previously predicted, even without additional global warming. Scientists discovered that warm ocean water is penetrating miles beneath ...

Scientists Discover Arctic Sea Ice Loss Could Be Far Worse Than Predicted

Oct. 26, 2026 Arctic winter sea ice could disappear much faster than scientists previously expected, according to new research using climate clues from 6,000 years ago. By comparing ancient ocean sediments with modern climate models, researchers found that future ...

Nearly 20% of Switzerland’s Glacier Ice Has Vanished in Just Five Years

Oct. 23, 2026 Switzerland’s glaciers are disappearing at an alarming rate, losing more than 5% of their ice volume in 2026 alone. Some of the country’s most famous glaciers experienced their worst melting on record, while several smaller glaciers vanished ...

Alaska’s Monster Tsunami Sent Water 1,580 Feet Up a Mountain

Oct. 19, 2026 A massive landslide in Alaska triggered the second-highest tsunami ever recorded, sending water and debris 1,580 feet up a mountainside just hours after tourists visited the area. Scientists discovered that the disaster was preceded by several ...

Antarctica’s Sea Ice Has Undergone a Stunning Reversal

Oct. 15, 2026 Antarctic sea ice reached its third-lowest winter maximum in 2026, extending a remarkable decline that began after years of record-breaking growth. Scientists are investigating whether the dramatic reversal signals a long-term shift in Antarctica's ...

Arctic Sea Ice Hits Another Troubling Low in 2026

Oct. 15, 2026 Arctic sea ice is shrinking in both winter and summer, with satellite records revealing that the region's remaining ice is becoming thinner, younger, and more vulnerable to melting. Despite a recent slowdown in summer losses, scientists warn that ...

Europe's New Sentinel-3C Satellite Just Sent Back Spectacular Images of Earth

Oct. 12, 2026 Europe's Sentinel-3C satellite has returned breathtaking images of Earth just two weeks after launch, revealing the snowy Alps, frozen Arctic islands, and brilliant turquoise Caribbean waters. Its ...

Earth’s Center Is Moving, and NASA Just Measured It

Oct. 7, 2026 Earth’s center of mass is constantly on the move, shifting by a few millimeters as enormous amounts of water, ice, and even air migrate around the planet with the seasons. NASA scientists have developed a more precise way to track these tiny ...

The Arctic Sea Ice Melt Season Grew Longer for Decades, but Something Strange Happened Around 2010

Sep. 23, 2026 The Arctic sea ice melt season is roughly 40 days longer than it was in 1979, yet its rapid expansion unexpectedly leveled off around 2010. Scientists say changing clouds and increasingly thin ice ...

One of America’s Largest Reservoirs Just Hit a Record Low

Sep. 22, 2026 Lake Powell has fallen to its lowest level on record after an exceptionally dry and warm winter left the Colorado River Basin with little mountain snow to melt. Lake Mead also reached record lows, raising concerns for a river system that supplies ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:17am EDT

Scientists Discover First New Penguin Species in More Than 100 Years

Sep. 21, 2026 Genetic evidence has revealed a previously unknown gentoo penguin species on the remote Kerguelen Islands and shown that gentoos actually consist of four distinct species. The discovery also ...

Scientists Just Discovered Why Arctic Sea Ice Moves So Strangely

Sep. 17, 2026 Arctic sea ice may move in unexpected ways because individual ice floes are constantly colliding and transferring energy. Researchers found that this simple process can explain several long-standing ...

Back-to-Back Arctic Storms Can Double Sea Ice Loss

Sep. 13, 2026 Scientists have found that Arctic cyclones become especially destructive when several strike one after another. These storm clusters cause about twice as much sea ice loss as isolated cyclones, with ...

DNA Solves the Mystery of a Body Found in the Arctic in 1859

Sep. 10, 2026 Scientists have used DNA from living descendants to identify four more members of the doomed Franklin expedition, including Harry Peglar, whose identity had remained uncertain for 166 years. The ...

Antarctica Gained a Record 695 Billion Tons of Ice. Scientists Found the Surprising Reason

Sep. 6, 2026 East Antarctica gained an astonishing 695 billion tons of ice between 2021 and 2023, temporarily slowing Antarctica’s long-term decline. ...

Giant Greenland Iceberg Slams Into Joe Island and Survives

Sep. 4, 2026 A giant iceberg measuring more than 76 square kilometers broke from Greenland’s Petermann Glacier in August 2026, marking the Arctic’s largest glacier calving event since 2020. The berg later ...

One of Earth’s Driest Places Was Just Covered in Snow

Sep. 1, 2026 Rare storms covered huge stretches of Chile’s Atacama Desert in snow and dumped extraordinary amounts of rain on one of the driest regions on Earth. The extreme weather shut down observatories, ...

Hundreds of Hidden Earthquakes Found at Antarctica’s Doomsday Glacier

Aug. 30, 2026 Hundreds of previously overlooked seismic events have been detected beneath Antarctica, including 245 near the marine edge of the Thwaites Glacier. Many appear to be glacial earthquakes caused when ...

Scientists Find a Huge Hidden Ice Reservoir Beneath Utah’s Mountains

Aug. 27, 2026 Beneath the rocky slopes of Mount Timpanogos lies far more ice than anyone walking across the surface might suspect. Researchers used gravity measurements to map the buried glacier in 3D and found it ...

Manhattan-Sized Ice Island Breaks Off Greenland’s Petermann Glacier

Aug. 26, 2026 A Manhattan-sized ice island has broken away from Greenland’s Petermann Glacier after years of growing fractures weakened its floating ice tongue. Scientists expect two more huge sections could ...

A Manhattan-Sized Ice Island Just Broke Free from Greenland

Aug. 25, 2026 A huge section of Greenland’s Petermann Glacier has snapped off, forming an ice island about the size of Manhattan. Satellites watched cracks spread rapidly before the 76-square-kilometer slab ...

Scientists Discover a Natural Arctic Cloud Factory Missing from Climate Models

Aug. 18, 2026 A newly discovered Arctic process can dramatically boost the number of particles that help form clouds. Near melting sea ice, sunlight reacts with chemicals released by the ocean, algae, and ice, ...

The AMOC Stayed Strong Even as a Major Ocean “lifeline” Nearly Shut Down

Aug. 6, 2026 Ancient seafloor sediments have revealed a surprising twist in how the Atlantic’s massive circulation system works. During a cold period about 3.4 million years ago, the flow of warm, salty water ...

Ancient Arctic Carbon Is Pouring Into the Sea, but the Seabed Captures Most of It

Aug. 3, 2026 Thawing Arctic permafrost is releasing ancient carbon into the ocean, raising fears that microbes could turn it into greenhouse gases and accelerate climate change. But sediment cores collected near ...

A Slowing Atlantic Current Could Unleash Stronger California Storms

July 28, 2026 A weakening Atlantic current could supercharge California’s atmospheric rivers while leaving Greenland with fewer snow-producing storms. The changes could raise flood risks, strain infrastructure, ...

Forces Deep Inside Earth Helped Antarctica Freeze Before the Arctic

Aug. 25, 2026 Scientists may have solved the mystery of why Antarctica froze millions of years before the Arctic. Slow-moving waves deep inside Earth gradually lifted East Antarctica, building mountains and a high ...

Antarctica May Give the World Decades to Prepare for Rising Seas

July 23, 2026 Scientists may be able to reliably forecast Antarctic ice loss through the middle of this century, offering governments a vital head start on sea level rise. After that, unstable ice retreat could ...

Hidden Geological Process Offsets Carbon Emissions from Thawing Permafrost

June 20, 2026 Scientists found that thawing permafrost can trigger increased rock weathering, a natural process that absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere. In some regions, this carbon uptake was strong enough to fully ...

Arizona Reservoir Nearly Vanishes After Snowpack Collapse Triggers Massive Fish Kill

June 18, 2026 A historic lack of snow in the Gila River watershed has left Arizona’s San Carlos Reservoir less than 1% full, triggering a massive fish kill and an indefinite closure. Despite the bleak ...

Koalas Nearly Went Extinct Before Humans Arrived, DNA Study Reveals

July 17, 2026 A major DNA study has rewritten the koala's evolutionary story, revealing that the species suffered a dramatic population collapse about 100,000 years ago, long before humans arrived in ...

Scientists Discover Vast Hidden Structure Beneath Antarctica’s Ice

June 4, 2026 A giant fan-shaped network of hidden basins has been discovered beneath East Antarctica, revealing that several well-known subglacial features are actually part of one massive geological structure. ...

Arctic Ocean Passed a Tipping Point and Scientists Say It May Never Recover

May 28, 2026 The Arctic Ocean may have crossed a dangerous tipping point. Scientists say the rapid disappearance of sea ice is triggering a hidden chemical shift that is stripping the ocean of nitrate — a ...

Antarctica’s Ice Sheet Hit a Climate Tipping Point 1 Million Years Ago

May 29, 2026 A new study suggests Antarctica’s ice sheet hit a climate tipping point about one million years ago, making it far more reactive to temperature and CO2 changes. Researchers warn this surprising ...

Sea Level Rise Is Speeding Up and Scientists Now Know Exactly Why

May 22, 2026 The world’s oceans are rising at an accelerating pace, and scientists now say they can fully explain what’s driving it. Warming seawater is the biggest factor, while melting glaciers and polar ...

Humpback Whale Breaks Migration Record With 15,000 Kilometer Ocean Journey

May 19, 2026 Scientists have uncovered an astonishing new chapter in humpback whale migration: two whales were found to have traveled between breeding grounds in Australia and Brazil, crossing more than 14,000 ...

Antarctica Is Melting from Below and Scientists Say It’s Worse Than Expected

May 10, 2026 Scientists have uncovered a hidden Antarctic threat that could accelerate global sea level rise far faster than expected. Deep beneath floating ice shelves, long channels carved into the ice appear ...

Antarctic Glacier Collapses at Record Speed as Hektoria Retreats 15 Miles in Just 15 Months

May 19, 2026 Antarctica’s Hektoria Glacier collapsed with shocking speed, retreating 15 miles in only 15 months and setting a modern record for grounded ice loss. Scientists say warming conditions and ...

NASA Captures Wild Swirling Clouds and Rare Arctic Storm Over Alaska

May 6, 2026 Southern Alaska’s winter finale delivered a spectacular atmospheric display, captured by a NASA satellite. Cold Arctic air flowing over warmer ocean waters created long bands of clouds, swirling ...

Hidden Ocean Heat Is Creeping Toward Antarctica’s Fragile Ice Shelves

Apr. 30, 2026 Deep beneath the Southern Ocean, a quiet but alarming shift is underway: warm water is creeping closer to Antarctica, and scientists are now seeing it clearly for the first time. By combining decades ...

Earth’s Most Powerful Ocean Current Didn’t Form the Way We Thought

Apr. 7, 2026 A colossal ocean current encircling Antarctica—stronger than all the world’s rivers combined—played a far more complex role in shaping Earth’s climate than scientists once thought. New ...