Ice sheets and glaciers

Glacier

Skating in a small ice cave below Byron Glacier, in the Chugach National Forest of Alaska.

Year: 2017

Photographer: Paxson Woelber (edited by Frameworks)


Antarctic icebergs

About 61% of all fresh water on Earth is held in the Antarctic ice sheet, an equivalent to 70 m of water in the world's oceans.

Year: 2016

Photographer: Peter Prokosch

Pumping water onto ice sheets

One of the potentially most catastrophic effects of contemporary global warming would be the dramatic increase in sea levels as a result of the melting Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Even if all current emissions were immediately stopped, sea level rise could still occur because of locked-in warming (ICCI 2022).

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Melting glacier ice, Rødefjord, Northeast Greenland National Park (1)

Mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet quadrupled over the past two decades, contributing a quarter of the observed global sea-level rise.

Year: 2015

Photographer: Peter Prokosch

Ice sheet stabilization via seabed curtains

One of the potentially most catastrophic effects of contemporary global warming would be the dramatic increase in sea levels as a result of the melting Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Even if all current emissions were immediately stopped, sea level rise could still occur because of locked-in warming (State of the Cryosphere report 2022).

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Glacier in Southern Greenland (1)

The loss of ice in Greenland and the shrinking of glaciers in other parts of the Arctic currently contribute up to 40% of the average 3 mm global sea level rise per year. A number of studies suggest that Greenland could be a major contributor to a potential rise in sea levels of 0,5 to 1 meter by the end of the century.

Year: 2013

Photographer: Peter Prokosch

Ice sheet stabilization by draining water or bed freezing

It has been suggested that ice sheets could be stabilized by reducing the lubrication effect of water below the ice sheet.

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Glacier mouth, Krossfjorden, Svalbard

Krossfjorden lies within the Spitsbergen National Park in the Svalbard archipelago. The mountain formations in this area represent different geological periods and the site is recognized as an important monitoring station for climate variations. Lucky visitors to the area might witness the calving of ice into the sea from one of the five surrounding fjords.

Year: 2015

Photographer: Peter Prokosch

Glacier albedo increase

It has recently been suggested that hollow glass microspheres (HGM, see also see sea ice albedo increase) could be used to increase the albedo of mountain glaciers and thereby slow their melt.

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