Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Glaciology
Dendrochronology and the date of the Thera volcanic eruption
Published: 2026-09-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Glaciology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Volcanology
The main disciplines that contribute to our understanding of the chronology of the ancient Near East are history, archaeology, and various scientific dating techniques including dendrochronology, radiocarbon dating, and ice-core analysis. Beginning in the 1980s, a major rift began to develop between the historical-archaeological chronology and that based on dendrochronology-calibrated radiocarbon [...]
Deglacial Mass-Movement Floods as a Potential Source of Catastrophic Flood Traditions: A Testable Geomythological Hypothesis
Published: 2026-09-05
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Glaciology, Hydrology
Catastrophic flood traditions occur in many geographically separated cultures, but their possible geological substrates need not be uniform. Existing explanations include river floods, earthquake and volcanic tsunamis, glacial-lake outburst floods, postglacial sea-level rise, and cultural transmission. This paper proposes a complementary, explicitly testable hypothesis: during the terminal [...]
Magnitude-order improvements to the measurement precision of Antarctic grounding zone dynamics using SAR satellite constellations
Published: 2026-09-05
Subjects: Aerospace Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geophysics and Seismology, Glaciology
Glacier loss in Antarctica is strongly influenced by melt in the grounding zone, the transition between grounded and floating ice. Thwaites Glacier is a critical region, with 65 cm of sea-level-equivalent ice. A recent dataset tracks grounding line retreat for Thwaites and other Antarctic ice streams over 30 years. Despite this long-term record, significant uncertainty remains in predictions of [...]
Isochrone overturning in steady glacier flow
Published: 2026-09-04
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Glaciology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Ancient ice recovered at Allan Hills extends into the Miocene, but steep layers, age reversals and folds complicate its interpretation. Whether steady glacier flow can overturn initially ordered layers remains uncertain. Here, we track the horizontal order of particles deposited sequentially at the surface. This order is measured by a signed Jacobian that is equivalent to the inverse [...]
The importance of ice shelf melt rate distributions in modelling of Antarctic ice loss
Published: 2026-09-04
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Glaciology, Oceanography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Ocean-induced basal melting of ice shelves is a major cause of Antarctic ice loss. It is well known that the magnitude of this melt is an important factor to consider when modelling the future evolution of the ice sheet, and values of total melt volume or mean melt rates are often quoted for ice shelves. The finer detail of the distribution of this melt is usually given less attention. Here we [...]
A cascade, not a flood: testing the competing accounts of the 26 August 2026 Lhende Khola–Bhote Koshi disaster
Published: 2026-09-02
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Glaciology, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
On 26 August 2026 a rock–ice mass detached above the Lhende Khola on the China–Nepal border, blocked the channel, and released a flow that travelled about 100 km down the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli, killing hundreds of people and removing about a tenth of Nepal's generating capacity in a single morning. Reporting produced mutually incompatible accounts of the cause, while the agency best placed to [...]
The 26 August 2026 Langtang Lirung ice–rock avalanche and its transboundary cascade: a multi-source observational reconstruction in the Bhote Koshi basin
Published: 2026-09-01
Subjects: Geomorphology, Glaciology, Hydrology
On 26 August 2026, an ice–rock avalanche detached from the northern flank of Langtang Lirung (7,227 m) at about 5,200 m a.s.l., transformed into a debris flow that travelled roughly 22 km in 6–7 minutes, destroyed the Gyirong border port (China) and dammed the river; a flood then propagated a reported ~170 km down the Bhote Koshi–Trishuli–Narayani system into Nepal and India. At least 16 people [...]
Models of Thermosyphon Performance, Design, and Influence on Glacier Flow
Published: 2026-08-03
Subjects: Glaciology
Sea-level rise threatens coastal communities worldwide, and the acceleration of West Antarctic glaciers is the largest source of uncertainty in sea-level projections. The melt rate at the ice-bed interface is a primary control on the flow speed of fast-moving Antarctic glaciers and ice streams, whose beds are lubricated by meltwater and governed by thermodynamic feedback. Thermosyphons are [...]
Distributed Acoustic Sensing Recordings of Cryoseismicity Enable Seismic Imaging of Permafrost in Remote Arctic Regions
Published: 2026-07-29
Subjects: Geophysics and Seismology, Geotechnical Engineering, Glaciology
Permafrost can be highly heterogeneous, and variability in its subsurface structure under climate warming remains poorly understood despite the critical role of permafrost in Arctic hydrology, ecosystems, and infrastructure stability. Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) provides a long-term method for dense seismic array monitoring in remote regions with passively recorded seismic activities. We [...]
On the retreat of lagoon-terminating glaciers: sometimes fresh, sometimes salty
Published: 2026-07-12
Subjects: Geomorphology, Glaciology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Coastal lagoon-terminating glaciers flow into water bodies of variable salinity and temperature, shaped by mixing meltwater, ocean water, and ice. They remain understudied yet increasingly important as coastal glacier margins retreat globally. Lagoon salinity influences circulation through interactions with buoyant subglacial discharge. Water temperature, modulated by ocean connectivity and [...]
Beyond equilibrium: Multi-method mass-balance monitoring at the vanishing Alpine glacier Stubacher Sonnblickkees, Austria
Published: 2026-07-07
Subjects: Glaciology
Glaciers in the Eastern Alps are approaching extinction, raising the question of how reliably established mass-balance monitoring methods perform on glaciers in severe disequilibrium. We present a multi-year (2018–2025) intercomparison of three independent methods – direct glaciological, semi-direct (accumulation-area-ratio based) and UAV-geodetic – at Stubacher Sonnblickkees (SSK), Austria, [...]
Measurement and Tracking of Blowing and Falling Snow Particles Using an Automotive 1550 nm LiDAR
Published: 2026-06-26
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Fresh Water Studies, Glaciology, Hydrology, Meteorology
The prevalence and affordability of fast-scanning commercially available LiDARs are increasing due to the rapid expansion of the autonomous vehicle industry. These LiDAR units can provide >1 Hz measurements of millions of laser reflections at ranges of hundreds of meters with high precision. In this study we investigate the often overlooked 1550 nm wavelength LiDAR for measurements of airborne [...]
Glacier thickness, thermal regime, and subjective uncertainty from ground-penetrating radar of 25 Svalbard glaciers
Published: 2026-06-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Glaciology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Glacier thickness and thermal regime control glacier dynamics and long-term evolution, but observations are sparse at regional scales. Both can be measured using ground-penetrating radar (GPR), which requires manual or automated interpretation. Interpretation often depends on more than signal waveform analysis alone, and this subjectivity has not been thoroughly quantified before. We present 699 [...]
Global Gravitational-Resonant Waves in the Arctic Basin: Visualizing Hidden Ocean Macrodynamics using 22-Year Passive Microwave Radiometry Data
Published: 2026-06-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Glaciology, Hydrology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
The dynamics of the Arctic Ocean's sea ice cover are traditionally viewed through the lens of atmospheric forcing, ocean currents, and thermodynamic processes. In this paper, we propose a fundamentally new paradigm: the sea ice cover acts not as an elastic membrane transmitting mechanical stress, but as a passive two-dimensional indicator (analogous to Chladni figures) that visualizes a [...]
Modification of Antarctic geothermal heat flux by groundwater flow
Published: 2026-06-13
Subjects: Fluid Dynamics, Glaciology
The geothermal heat flux to the bed of the ice in Antarctica is important for ice flow and basal meltwater production, but is also highly uncertain. In particular, it is thought that groundwater flow in sedimentary basins could modify the geothermal heat flux to the ice bed by advecting heat, but this process is unaccounted for in current models. In this paper, we develop a mathematical model to [...]