Glaciers

In a discovery that partly answers the question of where all the water went on Mars, scientists have found vast, debris-covered glaciers much nearer the equatorial region than anyone had expected, according to a report Friday in the journal Science. The glaciers, estimated to contain at least as much water as Lake Huron and possibly as much as the entire Great Lakes, were found by ground-penetrating radar on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. "We have found a big chunk of the missing water that people have known must be there," said Ali Safaeinili, a member of the radar team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge.

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Icy wind whipped Lt. Nauman Ahmed's face as he plodded up a barren expanse of snowfields and crevasses. Woozy and spent, he reached a Pakistani military outpost 20,000 feet above sea level and slumped down on a cot in one of the camp's fiberglass igloos. The next morning, the peril of waging war in the world's highest conflict zone began to take its toll. His head throbbed, and he was coughing up blood. When he tried to speak, he couldn't form words. "I thought to myself, 'What is happening to me?

More than 99% of Alaska's large glaciers are in retreat or thinning, a new book by the U.S. Geological Survey says. Glaciers in nearly every mountain range and island group are experiencing "significant retreat, thinning or stagnation," particularly those at lower elevations, according to "The Glaciers of Alaska," the agency said Monday. About 5% of Alaska is covered by more than 100,000 glaciers. Those at elevations below 4,900 feet are retreating the most. Some glaciers at higher attitudes, where temperatures are lower, have expanded.

House Republicans are backing legislation in Congress to give the Department of Homeland Security control of more than 50 national parks and forests within 100 miles of the U.S. borders. The legislation involves a sweep of land along the frontier with Canada and Mexico, but exempts state land, private property and federal holdings used for mining, livestock grazing and timber harvesting. The new authority would carve through 54 national parks, including Joshua Tree, Saguaro, Acadia and Glacier.

High in the Himalayas, above this peaceful valley where farmers till a patchwork of emerald-green fields, an icy lake fed by melting glaciers waits to become a "tsunami from the sky." The lake is swollen dangerously past normal levels, thanks to the global warming that is causing the glaciers to retreat at record speed. But no one knows when the tipping point will come and the lake can take no more, bursting its banks and sending torrents of water crashing into the valley below.

The fallout from Mt. Rainier's shrinking glaciers is beginning to roll downhill, and nowhere is the impact more striking than on the volcano's west side. "This is it in spades," U.S. Park Service geologist Paul Kennard said recently, scrambling up a 10-foot-high mass of dirt and boulders bulldozed back just enough to clear the road. As receding glaciers expose crumbly slopes, vast amounts of gravel and sediment are being sluiced into the rivers that flow from the region's tallest peak.

Sometimes, even bucket-list trips go on sale. Travel company Antarctic Dream is offering half-off an 11-day trip to Antarctica in November and December that features close encounters with humpback whales, leopard seals and orcas on daily Zodiac raft excursions amid blue ice and glaciers. The small-ship expedition begins and ends in Ushuaia, Argentina, then spends two days crossing Drake Passage each way. Stops include Cuverville Island, known as a rookery for Gentoo penguins; Aitcho Island; Neko Bay; Pleanu on Petermann Island; and Deception Island.

The federal government Thursday released the most comprehensive study of melting glaciers in North America -- and the results show a rapid and accelerating shrinkage over the last half a century because of global warming. One of the glaciers in the study, the South Cascade Glacier in Washington state, has lost nearly half of its volume and a quarter of its mass since 1958, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Five days hardly seems long enough to explore Alaska's Prince William Sound, but adventure travel company Greenloons offers a tour that hits the glacier and fiord highlights for those short on time. The trip begins in Anchorage at a bed-and-breakfast that comes with access to hiking and biking along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. Then it's off to Whittier and two nights aboard a 65-food yacht to cruise the Barry Arm and visit the Harriman and College fiords, Eaglek Bay and Cascade Falls.

If you want to see a glacier melt with your bare eyes, try Yulong Snow Mountain, an 18,000-foot peak in southern China's Yunnan province. On this early December morning, the mountain is etched against the technicolor sky in shades of gray -- definitely more gray than white. Naked boulders of limestone and daubs of shrubbery protrude from the shallow snow cover. At a scenic overlook on the way up, tourists leave their woolly hats in the tour bus when they hop out to take photographs.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — They serve on a remote Himalayan glacier known as the world's highest combat zone, in a fiercely disputed region that has sparked two wars between archrivals Pakistan and India. But instead of dying in battle, 117 Pakistani soldiers were feared lost Saturday in a massive avalanche that entombed their lonely headquarters. Most of the soldiers were believed to have been in the battalion's main building when the avalanche struck about 6 a.m., burying the men under 70 feet of snow, Pakistani military officials said.

Five days hardly seems long enough to explore Alaska's Prince William Sound, but adventure travel company Greenloons offers a tour that hits the glacier and fiord highlights for those short on time. The trip begins in Anchorage at a bed-and-breakfast that comes with access to hiking and biking along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. Then it's off to Whittier and two nights aboard a 65-food yacht to cruise the Barry Arm and visit the Harriman and College fiords, Eaglek Bay and Cascade Falls.

Sometimes, even bucket-list trips go on sale. Travel company Antarctic Dream is offering half-off an 11-day trip to Antarctica in November and December that features close encounters with humpback whales, leopard seals and orcas on daily Zodiac raft excursions amid blue ice and glaciers. The small-ship expedition begins and ends in Ushuaia, Argentina, then spends two days crossing Drake Passage each way. Stops include Cuverville Island, known as a rookery for Gentoo penguins; Aitcho Island; Neko Bay; Pleanu on Petermann Island; and Deception Island.

It's been a big winter in Yosemite National Park and throughout the Sierra, and it isn't over yet. "It may be spring in Fresno or L.A., but it's not quite like that here," park spokeswoman Kari Cobb said. Indeed, with about double the usual snowpack  this year and temperatures barely hitting 60 degrees during the day, Memorial Day visitors can expect chilly weather through Monday, according to the National Weather Service . Glacier Point Road will open to traffic starting noon Friday, but Tioga Road (Highway 120)

Crystal Cruises' 12-day "Islands & Glaciers" cruise will feature the Vancouver TheatreSports League comedy troupe performing improv and conducting humor workshops. Dine in the Symphony's upscale Nobu Matsuhisa's Silk Road and Piero Selvaggio's Prego, or take in the scenery, including the Misty Fjord or the bald eagles and brown bears of Admiralty Island. Itinerary: San Francisco to Ketchikan, Juneau, Glacier Bay, Haines, the Inside Passage and Sitka, Alaska; Vancouver and Victoria, Canada; and back to San Francisco Dates: July 20-Aug.

The dramatic shrinking of Arctic Sea ice and the Northern Hemisphere's glaciers and snowfields has reduced the radiation of sunlight back into space more than scientists previously predicted, according to a new study in the journal Nature Geoscience . As a result, the ocean and land mass exposed by the melting ice and snow have absorbed more heat, contributing to global warming . The "albedo" effect, in which the white cover reflects...

Global warming is melting Ecuador's cherished mountain glaciers and could cause several of them to disappear over the next two decades, Ecuadorean and French scientists said Wednesday. The country's cone-shaped Cotopaxi volcano, towering at 19,347 feet, lost 31% of its ice cover from 1976 to 1997, according to a study by Ecuador's Meteorology Institute and France's scientific research institute IRD. Other volcanoes such as El Altar could lose their glaciers entirely over the next 10 to 20

The world's fastest-moving glacier, the Columbia Glacier in Alaska, is speeding up and might endanger shipping as it spawns more icebergs, researchers said. They said the glacier, near Anchorage, had increased from 80 feet to 115 feet a day. It might endanger shipping if it starts "calving" more chunks of ice.

The Olson House is hard to find, but once you arrive, there is no mistaking it. We made a few wrong turns at first, my brother and his wife, my wife, Margie, and I. The four of us had had taken this day trip to the village of Cushing just three years ago, and you'd think we'd know the way. We got directions — and suggest you do the same — in Thomaston off Route 1 at the Prison Showroom, a small gift shop that sells crafts made by...

As investigators took advantage of improving weather Wednesday in southwest Alaska to reach the plane crash that killed former Sen. Ted Stevens, another air rescue team concluded a frustrating battle to rescue passengers and crew from two downed aircraft high on Knik Glacier. The Alaska National Guard had to straddle two dramatic crash scenes, both with low clouds, remote locations and high winds. And Tuesday, a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter hoping to pluck five victims of a Sunday plane crash off the glacier instead slid and rolled over — adding the helicopter crew to the growing list of those needing transport off the icy, cloud-shrouded mountain.