Owen King

Today's coffee stop, on The Stuic, looking to Lochnagar. It's bonkers how much snow is bulging in the distance, above the coire. Difficult to gauge scale but that drooping tongue of snow is still more than 1.5km away! There were two walkers passing above it but you can't see them, they're so small.

Glacier surging and surge-related hazards in a changing climate Nature Reviews Earth & Environment - Glacier surges are rapid ice flow acceleration and mass transport events, which can threaten nearby communities, infrastructure and habitats. This Review...

A new global synthesis of glacier surging is out now in @natrevearthenviron.nature.com

rdcu.be/e3BIH

We explore:

- the diversity in surge behaviour
- mechanisms responsible for surging
- controls on surge-type glacier distribution
- surge hazards
- climate change impacts on surging

Glacier surging and surge-related hazards in a changing climate - Nature Reviews Earth & Environment Glacier surges are rapid ice flow acceleration and mass transport events, which can threaten nearby communities, infrastructure and habitats. This Review discusses the global distribution, behaviour a...

***Our review paper on glacier surging is out!***

Lovell H, Benn DI, Jiskoot H and 12 others (2026) “Glacier surging and surge-related hazards in a changing climate.”
Nature Reviews Earth & Environment 7(2). doi.org/10.1038/s430...

@hazlovell.bsky.social #cryosphere #glaciology #science #glaciers

Our new study documents glacier loss in the Himalaya accelerating since 2003. Annual ice losses are consistent with those projected under the high emissions scenario.

This is impactful, but not joyful, science led by Javed Hassan (DTU). ⤵️

Open-access article: ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/113...

Had a very nice time indeed at #ArcticFrontiers.

Palaeoglacier reconstruction and dynamics of Cordillera Vilcanota in the tropical high Peruvian Andes We provide a geomorphological analysis of Cordillera Vilcanota and use morphostratigraphic principles to reconstruct palaeo icefield extent and palaeoglacier readvances, likely during the Antarctic ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

@iceybethan.bsky.social @owenking.bsky.social @climatom.bsky.social

When we first came across Suyuparina Glacier in the field a couple of years ago its potholed surface and irregular margin caught our eye. Some of it's neighbours looked similarly chewed, some didn't. We've had a closer look at what's going on in this new paper:

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Earth’s frozen regions are sending a clear warning about climate change – but politicians are ignoring it The warning lights from the cryosphere have been flashing red for several years and governments and policymakers ignore this at their peril.

As scientists 🧪 who regularly attend UN #climate summits, we've noticed efforts to downplay, confuse and dilute the latest scientific findings, especially from the cryosphere ❄️.

This is alarming.

More details in @theconversation.com

theconversation.com/earths-froze...

@geogdurham.bsky.social

A very, very good day in the Cairngorms.

⬇️ LAUNCHED TODAY ⬇️

State of the Cryosphere Report 2025

Over 50 leading cryosphere scientists warn that current climate commitments, leading the world to well over 2°C, spell disaster for billions from global ice loss – but that damage can still be prevented.

Read here:

iccinet.org/statecryo25/

Newcastle scientists contribute to UNESCO glacier loss report Scientists from Newcastle University have contributed to a major new international report highlighting accelerating decline of glaciers and ice sheets and the consequences for people and the planet.

Fantastic to see our colleagues Professor Bethan Davies @iceybethan.bsky.social and Dr Owen King contributing to UNESCO & WMO’s new volume Glaciers and Ice Sheets in a Warming World: Impacts and Outcomes!

www.ncl.ac.uk/press/articl...

Wind power has cut £104bn from UK energy costs since 2010, study finds Reduction comes from energy generated from windfarms and lower cost of gas owing to lower demand

Just as an aside: tell EVERYONE you know about this.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I'm delighted to inform you that teens are still playing The Game.

Also, since it's likely been a while, you just lost The Game.

'out there at this time in the morning, are you mad?!'

Andrzej Bargiel Describes How He Skied Down Everest » Explorersweb Until now, we knew very little about the strategy the Polish skier used to ski down Everest without bottled oxygen. Here's his detailed account.

Some amazing information about Andrzej Bargiels O2less ski descent of Everest here. Also talks of big changes in his 13 years on the mountain and increasing risk in a warmer world. Yikes.

explorersweb.com/andrzej-barg...

Fab week in Innsbruck featuring some light International Mountain Conferencing and a bit more ice creaming and exploring.

My tallest sunflower got too big for its very tiny boots. 6ft 4 me for scale.

The #Glacier Loss Day is reached in Switzerland!
From now on all melt that occurs on glaciers until October is unsustainable. This tipping point has only been reached so early in the record-shattering year 2022.
Expect big ice loss due to the prolonged melt season and feedback effects

A very pretty satellite image taken over the South Patagonian Icefield in 1973. Apparently I am not allowed to set this as my desktop background for university IT reasons, so here you go Bluesky.

So NERC have quietly announced this afternoon that they're delaying/cancelling/suspending, whatever 'not launched at this time' means, their 2025 Independent Research Fellowship round. After announcing it 34 days ago.

Flip-flopping like this is really detrimental to early career researchers.

Frozen, thawed: how Arendelle’s glacier would fare under modern climate change A glaciologist investigates a Disney classic.

Inspired by many, many viewings with my kids, I wrote something for @uk.theconversation.com that imagines how the Arendelle glacier in Disney's Frozen might look after 200 years of climate change:

theconversation.com/frozen-thawe...

Sign the Petition End unnecessary redundancies at Newcastle University

Please sign this petition to argue against compulsory redundancies at Newcastle University.

chng.it/GxZdqW8xKv

Is it hot right now in the UK?

New interactive website allowing anyone to explore live temperatures hour-by-hour across the UK, and whether they are cool, warm or hot relative to normal.

istheukhotrightnow.com

Built by @roostweather.bsky.social.

I have never felt such guilt whilst snacking.

👏👏👏

Schematic illustrating estimation of frontal ablation on lake-terminating glaciers

Excited that Noah Caldwell's work is officially out in @igsoc.bsky.social Journal of Glaciology! Noah used satellite remote sensing to estimate how much ice is being lost to iceberg calving and subaqueous melt on 55 Alaska lake-terminating glaciers. Read more: doi.org/10.1017/jog....

Distributions of lake length (left) and lake-terminating retreat duration (right) under different ice thickness scenarios (line colors)

We estimate the average Alaska lake-terminating glacier has 9 km of lake expansion potential and will remain in contact with its proglacial lake for the next 74 years. This makes process understanding of glacier-lake interactions important for projecting glacier response to #climatechange

Elevation change maps to compare with Mauri's snowcover obs. Thinning throughout the elevation range of the ice cap now, although it has been an unhappy ice cap for a while. Moraines flanking the recently formed ice marginal lakes certainly not stable on the eastern side of the ice cap either. ❄️🧪

Quelcaya Ice Cap, Peru snowline in 2024 was 5600 m, leaving less than 25% snowcovered. The retreat since 2013 of several marginal lakes is evident in the Landsat comparison. The limited snowcover persisted from Augutst-October 2024 Sentinel images #glaciology.

To celebrate this first ever World Day of the Glacier, and to highlight the role of climate change in shrinking the glaciers of the Andes, we are delighted to produce a first Deplete and Retreat Policy Brief on the future of the Andean water towers. www.antarcticglaciers.org/2025/03/poli...