The Oregon Cascades had 35 named glaciers on seven volcanoes in the 1980s, with 34 of those glaciers remaining by 2000. Here, we document the glaciers that fall into the Global Glacier Casualty List categories based on five years of field observations of these 34 glaciers. Five glaciers have disappeared, four have almost disappeared and eight are critically endangered. Thus, half of the Oregon Cascades named glaciers have disappeared, almost disappeared, or reached critically endangered status in the 21st century. Between 1980 and 2024, the May–October ablation season of the Oregon Cascades region warmed at ∼0.3°C per decade, with a 2020–24 mean temperature ∼1.7°C warmer than the 1975–84 mean. In contrast, there was no significant trend in November–April accumulation season precipitation. Given the significant rise in melt-season temperature, we attribute ongoing glacier disappearance in the Oregon Cascades to the warming climate.

This letter reviews public communication efforts addressing glacial loss from 1958 to 2025, tracing a trajectory from early educational films to contemporary ritual performances. It examines how documentaries, visual media, fiction and immersive technologies have sought to translate cryospheric decline into emotionally resonant narratives that inform and inspire climate action. Particular attention is given to the recent rise of performative and ritual practices, including glacier funerals and the Global Glacier Casualty List, which commemorate disappearing glaciers while fostering affective engagement and ethical reflection. The authors argue that interdisciplinary collaborations among scientists, artists and communities remain vital for amplifying public awareness and catalyzing environmental response.

The Arctic is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth. The High Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard contains over 1500 glaciers that have, overall, experienced widespread thinning and recession since the Little Ice Age (LIA; ∼1900 CE), and this recession has accelerated since 1990. Here, we showcase the terminal decline since the end of the LIA of Elsabreen and Ferdinandbreen, two small land-terminating glaciers in Petuniabukta, Dickson Land. We map glacier areal extents using previously published data, aerial photographs and satellite imagery (LIA to 2024) and derive ice volume changes by differencing digital elevation models (1938 to 2023). Both glaciers have lost over 93% of their glacier area since the LIA and over 96% of their ice volume since 1938. By 2024, Elsabreen had reduced to a small glacier remnant with little evidence of ice flow, and Ferdinandbreen had fragmented into several separate ice units and completely detached from its original accumulation areas. Both of these vanishing glaciers merit inclusion on the Global Glacier Casualty List.

The timing of snowmelt onset (SMO) is a critical climate indicator in the Arctic. However, spaceborne, in-situ measurements, and model simulations yield different estimates for the timing. Understanding these discrepancies is essential for identifying the physical mechanisms driving SMO. In this study, SMO, snow, and sea ice thermodynamics were simulated using a single-column snow/ice model (HIGHTSI) along trajectories of 42 ice mass balance buoys operating in the period of 2010 to 2015. The results were compared with passive microwave remote sensing and ice mass balance observations. The modeled surface-SMO has a high inter-annual correlation (0.94) with the ice mass balance-derived results but occurred on average 5 days earlier than observations. The remote-sensing-derived Early-SMO was 12 days before the ice mass balance-derived surface-SMO, while the Continuous-SMO showed a 5 day lag. The modeled average snow depth, ice thickness, and snow/ice temperature captured the recorded seasonal variations. The modeled snow/ice temperature showed seasonal biases of 0.4°C/0.5°C between May–September, and −2.7°C/−4.6°C between October–April, respectively. The corresponding biases for average snow depth and ice thickness were −0.05 m/−0.15 m and 0.03 m/0.14 m, respectively. Accurate representation of air temperature forcing and solar radiation absorption is crucial for realistic simulation of SMO.

The archaeology of glaciers and ice patches has developed as a distinct new field in response to climate change and the melting of mountain ice. Thousands of artefacts and biological materials, dating back up to 10 000 years are being released from melting ice patches and retreating glaciers, offering unique insight into past human activities in cold environments. This paper examines the historical development of glacial archaeology, the preservation or loss of archaeological material from snow and ice, and the methodological challenges in locating and recovering such finds. Key finds and sites from North America, the Alps and Norway are presented. The emerging history demonstrates that high mountain areas were used more intensively in the past than previously assumed, including during winter. The paper argues that closer collaboration between glacial archaeology, glaciology and palaeoclimate research would be highly beneficial, particularly through joint investigations of the ice at glacial archaeological sites.

Melting alpine ice threatens (pre)historic archaeological sites. Current trends suggest loss of ice will continue. Here, we present recent fluctuations in yearly minimum extent from 2017 to 2024 for three central Norwegian ice patches: Storhornet, Elghøa and Lågtangan. We discuss how melting ice affects their archaeological potential and introduce the term ghost patch to describe archaeological ice patch sites no longer containing ice. Future archaeological fieldwork prioritization must account for ice patch to ghost patch transitions. We suggest updated archaeological approaches for a future with less and less ice.

An alpine glacier below Sunlight Peak in northwest Wyoming was first photographically documented in 1893, near the end of the Little Ice Age and during the time of industrialization. Since then, evolving technologies have been applied to observe this glacier and nearby discontinuous permafrost for studies spanning Earth, environmental, and planetary sciences. Surveys in the 21st century indicate negative mass balance coinciding with rising average air temperature. This paper reviews the geological and geophysical data on record for the Sunlight Glacier system, presents new results from a 2023 fieldwork campaign combined with remote sensing analysis and comments on likely scenarios of future evolution for this individual body of ice within a broader alpine cryosphere feeding the watersheds of western North America.

The Zugspitzplatt represents a key high-alpine reference landscape in German geography. Located below the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest peak, it still hosts some of the country’s small remaining glacier ice reserves. Owing to its long history of scientific observation, high accessibility, and pronounced sensitivity to climatic change, the Zugspitzplatt has acquired emblematic significance as a national reference site for alpine geomorphological and glaciological research. The observation of the Schneeferner glaciers follows a long-standing tradition of glacier monitoring in this region. As of 2022, one of the two glaciers has completely disappeared, and the remaining one is critically endangered. Here, we present geodetic mass balances since 1892 based on historical maps and own surveys. Measurements of ice thicknesses allow the determination of absolute ice masses and their change. From 52 megatons of ice in 1892, less than one megaton was left in 2023 and its disappearance is inevitable. While this deglaciation will have negligible effects on humankind, it represents a potent visual and emotional indicator of climate change. Given the presence of a touristic hotspot and an environmental research station, the Zugspitzplatt has the potential to serve as a focal point for climate education.

The Tropical Andes stand out as one of the mountain regions most affected by global warming. Here, we present a synthesis of recent glacier evolution in the Cordillera Blanca, based on the glaciers that have been monitored with in situ glaciological measurements over the past decades. In particular, we describe the evolution of the Glacier Yanamarey, a reference glacier in the Peruvian Andes in the World Glacier Monitoring Service database. This glacier is currently on the verge of vanishing—similar to several other glaciers in the Cordillera Blanca. Finally, we address the current state of glacier monitoring in the region and the main challenges to ensure the continuity and sustainability of these monitoring programs.

More than just shrinking ice, glaciers are more-than-human entities that have relationships with people, affecting and influencing their behaviour. This paper focuses on the relationship between glaciers and alpinists, a community that experiences their retreat in an intimate and embodied way. Thirty semi-structured interviews with alpinists in the European Alps reveal four relational dynamics shaped by disappearing glaciers: awareness leading to technical adaptation, avoidance of increasingly unstable areas, responses to loss, and the enduring pleasure of the encounter. These dynamics shed light on the mourning processes experienced by alpinists in response to the disappearance of the glaciated environment, which can be understood as a form of ecological grief. This mourning has an ambivalent potential: it can lead to a never-ending state of melancholia or, when combined with residual pleasure and attachment, it can foster leadership in climate action and support the development of new relationships with the deglaciated mountain landscape.

We assess ongoing regional glacier loss in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg using a set of manually mapped glacier outlines for 2017, 2020, 2022 and 2023. Vorarlberg has lost about half of its glacierized area since a previous inventory in the mid-2000s. In 2017–23, glacier area was lost at an average rate of 5% per year. Area loss rates at individual glaciers have increased over time but show considerable variability between glaciers and subperiods. Of 30 glaciers previously inventoried, 5 have vanished completely since 2017. We discuss mapping differences due to the variable interpretation of the images by multiple observers and the mapping challenges that arise even with very high-resolution (10 cm) imagery. Processes leading up to the complete loss of glacier ice, mainly increased debris cover and fragmentation into very small features, cause inherent uncertainties in documenting the disappearance of mountain glaciers and ice bodies. We considered criteria that might be used to define terminology and found 16 remaining glacier fragments with crevasses indicating past or current ice flow, which could be considered glaciers rather than ice bodies.