glacier retreat
Melting ice pullback
Glacier retreat is the shrinking of a glacier over time, when melting and evaporation exceed new snowfall and ice formation.
The term appears frequently in climate discussions: Glacier retreat in the Alps has accelerated dramatically.
The glacier doesn't physically move backward—its leading edge simply recedes as ice is lost faster than it accumulates.
- global warmingRising planetary temperatures
- tipping pointThreshold triggering major change
- meltingSolid-to-liquid transition
- glacial meltFrozen mass becoming water
- ablationRemoval by cutting, melting
calving · sea level rise · moraine · cryosphere · thawing permafrost · glacial erosion · mass balance · sublimation · carbon emissions · glacial melting · habitat loss · rising seas · polar ice · greenhouse gases · climate change · glacial lake · ice sheet · ice cap
- Ice Agesice age, glacial, glaciation, glacial period, ice sheet
- glaciationice age, glacial period, glaciation, ice sheet, Pleistocene
- polar scienceglaciology, Antarctic research, ice shelf, Arctic, ice caps
- AlaskaFairbanks, Juneau, Denali, Sitka, Kodiak
- climateclimate change, climate, weather, global warming, temperature
- Climate Changeglobal warming, greenhouse gases, climate change, carbon dioxide, CO2