Yarrow Axford

Researchers documented changes in the lengths of more than 1,000 of Greenland’s glaciers over the past 130 years. The study finds that climate change explains the accelerated glacier retreat and that glaciers across the country respond quickly to changing temperatures, which highlights the importance of slowing global warming. Photo by Laura Larocca

Faculty, Research November 15, 2023

Greenland’s glacier retreat rate has doubled over past two decades

The new findings are ubiquitous, even among Earth’s northernmost glaciers

Greenland’s thousands of peripheral glaciers have entered a new and widespread state of rapid retreat, a Northwestern University and University of Copenhagen study has found.

To piece together the magnitude …

Study co-authors Yarrow Axford, Everett Lasher and Jamie McFarlin collect sediment samples at Wax Lips Lake in northwest Greenland in 2014. Photo by Alex P. Taylor

Faculty, Research October 5, 2023

Ancient plant wax reveals how global warming affects methane in Arctic lakes

Warming led to an intensified methane cycle, lasting thousands of years, study finds

By studying fossils from ancient aquatic plants, Northwestern University and University of Wyoming (UW) researchers are gaining a better understanding of how methane produced in Arctic lakes …