Melting Glaciers: Photos

Goodbye, glaciers. These rivers of ice are melting worldwide.

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The Aletsch Glacier in Switzerland

This typical valley glacier is the largest one in the Alps. The glacier's volume loss since the middle of the 19th century is well visible from the trimlines to the right of the image.

Greenland ice caps

This image shows some local (or peripheral) glaciers and ice caps in eastern Greenland in the foreground and the ice sheet with its outlet glaciers (upper right) in the background. Thanks to a new glacier inventory for all of Greenland, it was for the first time possible to determine the sea-level rise contribution from the local glaciers and ice caps on Greenland separately from those of the ice sheet.

The Belcher Glacier on Devon Island in Nunavut, Canada

A Canadian researcher maintains a time-lapse camera overlooking the Belcher Glacier. Monitoring the ice that breaks off from the glacier helps the researchers constrain how much ice is calving into the ocean.

Snow Pit

Glacier Researchers digging a four-meter (13 ft) snow pit to examine annual snow layers on the Devon Island Ice Cap in Nunavut, Canada.

Aerial view of Sverdrup Glacier

The Sverdrup Glacier -- a river of ice in Nunavut, Canada -- flows from the interior of the Devon Island Ice Cap into the ocean.

Glacial Motion

A small valley glacier exits the Devon Island Ice Cap in Nunavut, Canada.

Arctic ice melt

This Landsat satellite image shows the small ice caps located on the southern coast of Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, Canada.

Argentina ice

The Upsala Glacier in Argentina's Los Glaciares National Park flows out from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field.

Argentina ice

The terminus of the Upsala Glacier is at Lago Argentino.

Argentina ice

The Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina also flows from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field located in the Andes.

Argentina ice

The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the major tourist attractions in southern Patagonia.

Alaska's Columbia Glacier

Meltwater pools in the accumulation zone of the glacier in July 2008.

Alaska's Columbia Glacier

Crevasses are also seen in the accumulation zone of the glacier in July 2008.

Alaska's Columbia Glacier

The glacier retreated 14 kilometers between 1984 and 2004. Here the terminus of the glacier is seen in June 2004.

Alaska's Columbia Glacier

A stranded iceberg at the Columbia Glacier moraine shoal in Prince William Sound, Alaska, in July 2010.