This award-winning photo by Thomas Vijayan shows waterfalls of ice melt off the Austfonna ice cap. The third-largest glacier in Europe, Austfonna is located in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. Like other Keep reading
Tag: melting
Icelandic Glacial Caves
Expedition guide and photographer Ryan Newburn captures the ephemeral beauty of the glacial caves he explores in Iceland. These caves are in constant flux, thanks to the run and melt Keep reading
“Eternal Spring”
With every spring comes the thaw. Warming temperatures melt winter’s ice, carving it away to reveal the surfaces beneath. Christopher Dormoy’s macroscale timelapse “Eternal Spring” captures this dynamic, showing the Keep reading
Summer Melt
A warm summer in 2022 has resulted in record melting on Svalbard. Located halfway between the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole, more than half of Svalbard is normally covered Keep reading
Leidenfrost On Ice
We’ve seen many forms of Leidenfrost effect — that wild, near-frictionless glide that liquid droplets make on a very hot surface — over the years, but here’s a new one: Keep reading
Mushy Layers
In many geophysical and metallurgical processes, there is a stage with a porous layer of liquid-infused solid known as a mushy layer. Such layers form in sea ice, in cooling Keep reading
The Shapes of Melting Ice
Water is an odd substance because it is densest at 4 degrees Celsius, well above its melting point at 0 degrees Celsius. This density anomaly means that melting ice takes Keep reading
Antarctic Meltwaters
Cerulean blue meltwater glints in this satellite image of the George VI Ice Shelf. Wedged between the Antarctic Peninsula on the right and Alexander Island on the left, the ice Keep reading
Iceberg Melting Depends on Shape
Not all icebergs melt equally. Through a combination of experiment and numerical simulation, researchers have shown that an iceberg’s shape underwater strongly affects how it melts. Specifically, icebergs in a Keep reading
Albedo Effect
Temperature isn’t the only factor that determines how ice will melt. In this photo, a dark oak leaf absorbed more solar radiation than the reflective ice around it, causing the Keep reading