Svalbard has experienced a dramatic increase in air temperature and glacier retreat since the end of the Little Ice Age. In many cases, this retreat has resulted in glaciers transitioning from being marine-terminating to land-terminating. Nordenskiöldbreen is an excellent contemporary example of this transition. A set of historical observations of glacier front positions was used to assess Nordenskiöldbreen's retreat rate and we found that the southern portion of the glacier front retreated by ~3500 m, since records began in 1896. The general retreat rate corresponds well with the air temperature trend during most of the 20th century. However, the average retreat rate has slowed since the 1990s despite increasing air temperatures. We show that this discrepancy between air temperature and retreat rate marks the transition from marine-terminating towards a land-terminating glacier, as the glacier's bedrock topography started to play an essential role in the glacier margin geometry, ice flow and retreat dynamics.

Radiocarbon dating of well-preserved, in-place vegetation exposed by the retreating Quelccaya Ice Cap of southeastern Peru constrains the last time the ice cap's extent was smaller than at present. Seventeen plant samples from two sites along the central western margin collectively date to 4700 and 5100 cal yr BP and strongly indicate that current ice cap retreat is unprecedented over the past ∼ 5 millennia. Seventeen vegetation samples interbedded in a nearby clastic sedimentary sequence suggest ice-free conditions at this site from ∼ 5200 to at least ∼ 7000 cal yr BP, and place minimum constraint on early- to mid-Holocene ice cap extent.

Thinning rates for the debris-covered Gangotri Glacier and its tributary glaciers during the period 1968–2014, length variation and area vacated at the snout from 1965 to 2015, and seasonal variation of ice-surface velocity for the last two decades have been investigated in this study. It was found that the mass loss of Gangotri and its tributary glaciers was slightly less than those reported for other debris-covered glaciers in the Himalayan regions. The average velocity during 2006–14 decreased by ~6.7% as compared with that during 1993–2006. The debris-covered area of the main trunk of Gangotri Glacier increased significantly from 1965 until 2015 with the maximum rate of increase (0.8 ± 0.2 km2 a−1) during 2006–15. The retreat (~9.0 ± 3.5 m a−1) was less in recent years (2006–2015) but the down-wasting (0.34 ± 0.2 m a−1) in the same period (2006–2014) was higher than that (0.20 ± 0.1 m a−1) during 1968–2006. The study reinforced the established fact that the glacier length change is a delayed response to climate change and, in addition, is affected by debris cover, whereas glacier mass balance is a more direct and immediate response. Therefore, it is recommended to study the glacier mass balance and not only the glacier extent, to conclude about a glacier's response to climate change.

This study investigated the mass balance, melting, near-surface ice thermal structure and meteorological conditions of the Ecology and Sphinx glacier system (ESGS), located on King George Island, Antarctic Peninsula. The study also analysed the role of climate change in glacial retreat of the ESGS in the long (1979–2012) and short term, with a particular focus on the impact on the 2012–13 mass balance of the ESGS. In 2012–13, the glaciers had a mean annual net mass balance of +17.8 cm w.e., but over the long term the glaciers have been receding in this region. The area loss of the ESGS between 1979 and 2012 amounted to 41%. This investigation of mass balance is especially important as it offers one of only a few records available on King George Island. The mean near-surface ice temperature (February to June 2012) for the Ecology and Sphinx glaciers was -0.3°C and -1.0°C at 10 m depth, respectively. From 1948–2012, the air temperature on King George Island increased by 1.2°C (0.19°C per decade).

During RV Polarstern cruise ANT-XXIII/4 in 2006, a gravity core (PS 69/335-2) and a giant box core (PS 69/335-1) were retrieved from Maxwell Bay off King George Island (KGI). Comprehensive geochemical (bulk parameters, quantitative XRF, Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry) and radiometric dating analyses (14C, 210Pb) were performed on both cores. A comparison with geochemical data from local bedrock demonstrates a mostly detrital origin for the sediments, but also points to an overprint from changing bioproductivity in the overlying water column in addition to early diagenetic processes. Furthermore, ten tephra layers that were most probably derived from volcanic activity on Deception Island were identified. Variations in the vertical distribution of selected elements in Maxwell Bay sediments further indicate a shift in source rock provenance as a result of changing glacier extents during the past c. 1750 years that may be linked to the Little Ice Age and the Medieval Warm Period. Whereas no evidence for a significant increase in chemical weathering rates was found, 210Pb data revealed that mass accumulation rates in Maxwell Bay have almost tripled since the 1940s (0.66 g cm-2 yr-1 in ad 2006), which is probably linked to rapid glacier retreat in this region due to recent warming.