glaciers – UCI

Increasing ocean temperature threatens Greenland’s ice sheet

Written on January 25, 2021.

UCI and NASA JPL scientists study impact of warm, salty water beneath glaciers January 25, 2021 — Scientists at the University of California, Irvine and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have for the first time quantified how warming coastal waters are impacting individual glaciers in Greenland’s fjords. Their work is the subject of a study published recently in Science Advances. Working under the auspices of the Oceans Melting Greenland mission for the past five years, the researchers...

East Antarctica’s Denman Glacier has retreated almost 3 miles over last 22 years

Written on March 23, 2020.

UCI, NASA scientists assess ice sheet with potential to raise global sea levels nearly 5 feet Irvine, Calif., March 23, 2020 – East Antarctica’s Denman Glacier has retreated 5 kilometers, nearly 3 miles, in the past 22 years, and researchers at the University of California, Irvine and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are concerned that the shape of the ground surface beneath the ice sheet could make it even more susceptible to climate-driven collapse. If fully thawed, the ice in Denman...

UCI-led team releases high-precision map of Antarctic ice sheet bed topography

Written on December 12, 2019.

New findings will help scientists predict climate change impact on frozen continent Irvine, Calif., Dec. 12, 2019 – A University of California, Irvine-led team of glaciologists has unveiled the most accurate portrait yet of the contours of the land beneath Antarctica’s ice sheet – and, by doing so, has helped identify which regions of the continent are going to be more, or less, vulnerable to future climate warming. Highly anticipated by the global cryosphere and environmental science communities,...

UCI, JPL glaciologists unveil most precise map ever of Antarctic ice velocity

Written on July 29, 2019.

Project utilized 25 years of data from six international satellite missions Irvine, Calif., July 29, 2019 – Constructed from a quarter century’s worth of satellite data, a new map of Antarctic ice velocity by glaciologists from the University of California, Irvine and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is the most precise ever created. Published today in a paper in the American Geophysical Union journal Geophysical Research Letters, the map is 10 times more accurate than previous renditions,...

Patagonia ice sheets thicker than previously thought, study finds

Written on June 3, 2019.

UCI, South American glaciologists characterize protected region with new methods Irvine, Calif., June 3, 2019 – After conducting a comprehensive, seven-year survey of Patagonia, glaciologists from the University of California, Irvine and partner institutions in Argentina and Chile have concluded that the ice sheets in this vast region of South America are considerably more massive than expected. Through a combination of ground observations and airborne gravity and radar sounding methods,...

2 UCI studies ranked among the 10 most popular climate research papers of 2018

Written on January 9, 2019.

Carbon Brief, a website devoted to the analysis of energy policy and climate change science, has published a list of the 10 climate research papers in 2018 that received the most global media attention, and two originated at UCI. The rankings are based on scores tabulated by Altmetric, which tracks and measures exposure of academic papers appearing in top journals. Placing third on the list is a study by Steven Davis, UCI associate professor of Earth system science, and Nathan Mueller, UCI assistant...

UCI Earth system scientist joins international team studying Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica

Written on May 1, 2018.

Mathieu Morlighem, UCI assistant professor of Earth system science, is contributing his expertise in ice sheet numerical modeling to the newly launched International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. The five-year, $25 million project, co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the U.K.’s Natural Environment Research Council, aims to provide answers to some of the most pressing inquiries about ice mass loss near the South Pole and the impact it will have on global sea level rise. “Thwaites,...

UCI and JPL find melting of Greenland’s glaciers worse than previously thought

Written on April 22, 2016.

New seafloor mapping techniques help scientists identify high-risk areas Carol Rasmussen / NASA Earth Science News Team Irvine, Calif., April 22, 2016 – Many large glaciers in Greenland are at greater risk of melting from below than previously thought, according to new maps of the seafloor around Greenland created by an international research team. Like other recent research findings, the maps highlight the critical importance of studying the seascape under Greenland’s coastal waters to...

An Unexpected Lesson in Antarctic Ice Melt

Written on June 14, 2013.

Monte Morin, Los Angeles Times It’s called calving, and it occurs when enormous chunks of ice burst free from glaciers or floating ice shelves and drop into the sea with an explosive, heart-stopping crash. This process, which produces icebergs, has long been viewed as the primary mechanism for ice loss along the continent of Antarctica. Now however, scientists say calving is only half the story. In what is being described as the first comprehensive survey of all Antarctic ice...

Antarctic’s Ice Shelves Melting From the Bottom Up

Written on June 13, 2013.

Ice shelves lose more mass where the ice meets the sea than previously thought. Jane J. Lee, National Geographic Antarctica’s ice shelves are losing it. Conventional wisdom holds that ice shelves—the seaward extension of glaciers on land—lose most of their mass by shedding icebergs. But new research finds that there’s another weight-loss program at work—many of Antarctica’s ice shelves are melting away from the bottom up. Glacier experts have known for years that...

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