🌍 When nature shows its force Rockfalls, glacier collapses & debris flows are becoming more intense in a warming world. Join our VAW-glaciology group member Mylène Jacquemart at Treffpunkt Science City for her talk “Es rumort am Berg, Klimawandel und alpine Naturgefahren” ethz.ch/de/news-und-...

A New study by Léon Russel et al. (with #VAW member Marin Kneib) shows Saharan dust boosted melt on Argentière Glacier 🇫🇷 by ~10%, and up to 13% in 2022. Desert dust darkens the ice, lowers albedo, and can thereby accelerate glacier loss. ❄️ tc.copernicus.org/articles/19/... @meteofrance.com

Each summer, our students head to the Rhône Glacier to study a vanishing world. Hands-on work with GPR, drones, and ice drilling turns theory into practice! This year's course was beautifully captured in Terre & Nature! www.terrenature.ch/nature/sur-l...

MSc Topics 2025/2026 🌍❄️ Curious about glaciers, snow, or ice sheets? We’ve got 14 exciting MSc projects. From fieldwork on Swiss glaciers to modelling subglacial drainage beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. 👉 Explore & apply: 🔗 sirop.org/app/searchOp... Join us and dive into the cryosphere! 🧊

How do glaciologists turn into astronauts? 🌏🛰️ Jokes aside we're not heading into space just yet. A new #IACS #ContinuIX working group, co-chaired by #VAW's @marinkneib.bsky.social, uses satellite data to study ice thickness, velocities & more. Image credits: Russ Mitchell

Exploring the hidden world beneath the #PersGlacier. Scanning the ice cave in 3D with a LiDAR system to reveal its shapes and layers.

The world beneath the ice is a magical place, full of light reflections and twinkling frozen crystals. ❄️ Read about #VAW PhD student Leo Hösli’s ice cave research in #SAC Die Alpen: www.sac-cas.ch/de/die-alpen... ⚠️ Ice caves are temporary and collapse.

Behind the scenes of our 1925–2025 repeat photography at Birchgletscher! 🎥 Check out the #SRF #Einstein documentary “Bergsturz Blatten VS” (aired yesterday), revisiting Blatten months after the tragic rock–ice avalanche. 👉 www.srf.ch/play/tv/eins...

[1/2] 📢 GLAMOS @scnat.ch press release out today: Swiss glaciers lost another 3% of their volume in 2025, the 4th-largest decline ever measured. In just 10 years, they’ve lost a quarter of their ice mass. Over 1k small glaciers have already vanished. 🔗 to press release: scnat.ch/en/uuid/i/9d...

[1/2] Sometimes pictures say more than 1,000 words. This repeat photography of Birchgletscher (1927–2025) shows a century of change, ending in this year’s tragic collapse that destroyed Blatten and claimed one life. 📷 1927 vs 2025

New paper by colleagues at @unil.bsky.social (with our participation): 4D GPR imaging of a near-terminus glacier collapse feature. Drone-based radar reveals how cavities & subglacial channels evolve at the Rhône Glacier. 📖 tc.copernicus.org/articles/19/...

Fresh #snow is visible on several of our #glaciers through the real-time stakes, and more is on the way. ❄️ Winter is coming, marking an important recovery phase for glaciers after the (big) summer melt.

🇨🇭 All #GLAMOS measurements on Swiss #glaciers are now in. The analysis is underway, and on October 1 we will release the full report for 2024/25. Stay tuned! 📸 Images: REUTERS / Denis Balibouse

Incredible ice loss measured again at #Konkordiaplatz on the #Aletsch #Glacier, home to the thickest ice in the #Alps (still about 800 m!). Yesterday’s survey revealed another –4.6 m of ice gone in just one year. :( Measurements by @matthias-huss.bsky.social for GLAMOS

#IMC2025 is in full swing in #Innsbruck! You can meet us at several sessions throughout the week, looking forward to many inspiring science discussions!

Thanks to Gonzalo Gonzales de Diego for this week’s Glaciological Seminar on viscous contact problems, time-dependent flows where ice detaches/reattaches to bedrock. Key insights into subglacial cavities, grounding lines & numerical methods for modelling sliding and cavitation. 🧊💦

🎉 Congrats to our #VAW colleague & postdoc @landervt.bsky.social, on making HUMO’s 30 under 30 list alongside Remco Evenepoel & Jade Mintjens! 🌍❄️ A well-deserved honor for his scientific achievements. #30under30 #ScienceCommunication #glaciology #HUMO

Ever wondered what glaciologists actually do behind the scenes? 🧊⛏️ We’re launching The Glaciologist’s Logbook, short reels showing our day-to-day work. First up: ice thickness drilling on #Titlis glacier. 🎥 by Dominika Teluchova #VAW #Glaciology #Engelberg #Titlis #ScienceCommunication

#GLAMOS measurements have started last week with measurements on Rhone, Allalin, Corvatsch & Murtèl. Stay posted for the press release via @scnat.ch on 1st of October on the 2025 situation of #Swiss #glaciers.

Greetings from Marijn van der Meer at the #Ellis Summer School in Jena 🇩🇪! She presented her work on the #MassBalanceMachine. The school brings together AI & climate science & is co-organised by top institutes & supported by @climatechangeai.bsky.social, @esa.int Academy & more.

🌍 Even the most resilient glaciers aren’t safe. New research from our Austrian colleagues & contributions from #VAW member @marinkneib.bsky.social shows Central Asia’s glaciers may have hit a tipping point in 2018 after decades without data.

⛏️ How does mining-driven ice removal affect glacier evolution? In a new study led by #VAW colleague @landervt.bsky.social, we model 🇰🇬 Davydov Glacier (1850–2100), which lost huge ice volumes through a combination of mining & climate change. 👉 lnkd.in/eru5Xgur

That’s a wrap! This year's #Fieldcourse in Glaciology on #RhoneGlacier was a great success. Despite some tricky weather in the beginning, it turned out great. Huge thanks to all students and #VAW team members for their dedication and enthusiasm!

Congrats to #VAW member Aaron Cremona on successfully defending his PhD yesterday! 🎉 An excellent presentation, followed by an even tougher “exam” of yoga poses & Kovacs mounting, both passed with style. Well deserved, Aaron! 👏

On 28 Aug 2025, our new exhibition Deglaciation – Measuring the Ice opens at extract (ETH Zurich Collections & Archives). Join the vernissage at ETH Zurich, HG E7, 17:30 with remarks by Prof. Farinotti & team + apéro. 📍 ETH Zurich, HG E7 (Main Building) 🗓 28 Aug 2025, 17:30

Recent @glamos.bsky.social fieldwork on the #PlaineMorte glacier by @matthias-huss.bsky.social confirms what our models had already indicated: massive ice loss caused by the August heatwave in Switzerland. Even when expected, it is still striking, and sobering, to witness a glacier in its final days

1/3 🚨 Published today in @nature.com! We’re thrilled to celebrate the latest work by our colleague Dominik Gräff, with contributions from D. Farinotti & R. Moser 🎉 Using seafloor fiber-optic sensing, his team watched Greenland’s glaciers calve in real time & found something surprising 🌊🧊 📸: D. Gräff

Drone shots from last week’s fieldwork on Glacier de Tortin by #VAW's @beerjanosch.bsky.social. This low-elevation glacier is in bad shape, with >2 m surface melt last year. Englacial data indicates temperate conditions. #KeepSwissGlaciersCool #1400ReasonsToAct (Data: GLAMOS)

💧 Impressive meltwater flows at Pers Glacier! Postdoc @marit-vantiel.bsky.social and Leo Hösli recently carried out fieldwork at the #Pers #glacier, where they collected sensor data and performed tracer measurements to quantify discharge in the proglacial stream.

🧊 Deglaciation – surveying the ice New #exhibition @ethz.ch showcases 150 years of #glacier research: from ancient myths and early measurements to today’s #ClimateScience. 📅 29.08.2025 – 12.07.2026 👉 library.ethz.ch/en/news-and-... #glaciology #glaciers #zurich @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

Two weeks ago, part of our team set up a network of 17 ablation stakes (plus 3 existing ones from GLAMOS) on Gries Glacier to measure surface melt. With such a dense network, we’re expecting to see strong spatial differences in mass balance across the glacier. ❄️📍📊

What an honor for our group head Daniel Farinotti to represent @swisspolar.bsky.social during a high-level visit to Australia & New Zealand! A key milestone: signing a Memorandum of Agreement with #AntarcticaNZ to strengthen polar science collaboration. 🇨🇭🤝🇳🇿

[1/4] New paper 📣 this study, led by PhD student @jane-walden.bsky.social, was recently published in NHESS: doi.org/10.5194/nhes....

An ice lamella collapsing at #Morteratsch #glacier over the weekend. ❄️ The footage serves as a reminder that while ice caves are breathtaking natural wonders, they are temporary by nature, and eventually destined to collapse. 🧊🫧 Entering them is always a risk.

The Swiss Cryosphere Report 2024 is out: Despite heavy snow, Swiss glaciers lost >2% of their volume. Permafrost hit record levels as heatwaves & Saharan dust take a toll on snow & ice. 🧊📉 #Kryosphärenbericht2024 #GLAMOS @slfdavos.bsky.social #PERMOS @scnat.ch 🖇️ cryosphere.scnat.ch/de/publicati...

A steep, overhanging ice cliff now marks the terminus of the #Morteratsch glacier. During yesterday’s field campaign, our #VAW team installed a new monitoring camera and measured stream temperatures. Striking to witness the glacier’s dramatic transformation firsthand.

What drives seasonal glacier mass balance in the Swiss Alps? A new preprint by #VAW PhD student Aaron Cremona (et al.) explores 2010–2024 trends using remote sensing, modeling & ML. 🇨🇭 Swiss glaciers lost an astonishing 25% of their 2010 ice volume! 🧊 📄 doi.org/10.5194/egus...

A VAW team was out on #Griesgletscher yesterday, a chance to raise awareness for the #1400ReasonsToAct challenge by @powswitzerland.bsky.social. Glaciers are in bad shape this year. Cooler conditions can’t come soon enough. Take action here: www.1400-reasons-to-act.ch #KeepSwissGlaciersCool

🚨 New paper alert! Glaciers in Western Canada, Switzerland & the conterminous US lost twice as much ice from 2021–2024 compared to the previous decade. Heatwaves + dust & wildfire impurities drove extreme melt. Co-authored by #VAW member @matthias-huss.bsky.social ❄️🌍

That’s a wrap! #WSL Research Day & our Mountain Hydrology & Mass Movements RU day in beautiful #Davos were inspiring. We are grateful to be part of such a vibrant research community. Big thanks to the organizers, esp. our RU head Dr. Manfred Stähli! @wslresearch.bsky.social @slfdavos.bsky.social

🧊 Welcome to Antoine Sévenier, our new MSc student! He will be working on englacial & subglacial melt quantification using repeat LiDAR, in collaboration with UNIL & EPFL. Yesterday, Antoine joined Marin to survey the #Morteratsch glacier cave, diving right into glaciology! 🏔️🛰️

From the Alps to Tien Shan, same story for the glaciers this year, on track for record losses! 🔥🥵 Little winter snow and already crazy heat! 32°C at 1100 m in Chamonix 16°C at 3600 m in Tien Shan Real time mass balance 👇 Swiss Alps @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social Bordu Gl. @landervt.bsky.social

The limited snow cover on Alpine glaciers is melting rapidly due to high temperatures. ❄️🔥 Bad news for the ice: without this protective layer, it loses both shielding and growth potential higher up. The difference with last year is striking. #climatechange #glaciers #Alps

What a unique honour: during yesterday’s visit of former #Federal #Councillor Adolf Ogi to the Lötschental, we shared our current understanding of the #Blatten ❤️‍🩹 event-cascade. We hope the importance of learning from this disaster to reduce future risks will be as clear to others as it was to him. 🙏

We’ve updated the #Birchgletscher factsheet – the 🇨🇭#glacier that collapsed on 28 May. It took just ~40s for the ice-rock avalanche to hit the valley equalling an average speed of ~200 km/h. New data on volumes & timing now included: polybox.ethz.ch/index.php/s/... #Blatten ❤️

[1/2] We’ve released a new version of the factsheet on #Birchgletscher -- the Swiss glacier that catastrophically collapsed on 28 May 2025 following heavy debris loading from Kleines Nesthorn -- and some first field impressions that we were able to collect yesterday 🗂 polybox.ethz.ch/index.php/s/...

Every +0.1°C of global warming leads to ~2% more glacier ice loss. Sticking to the #ParisAgreement (+1.5°C) would preserve over half the ice compared to current policies (+2.7°C). This is the result of a new study based, led by Harry Zekollari, Lilian Schuster & several co-authors from our group.

Here is a factsheet on what is currently known about Birchgletscher, the Swiss glacier that catastrophically collapsed on 28 May 2025, following heavy debris loading from Kleines Nesthorn. Our thoughts are with all those most deeply affected. polybox.ethz.ch/index.php/s/...

📣 We are hiring an Office Manager (80–100%) to support our internationally active research group. If you're highly organized, fluent in English and German, and looking to make a meaningful impact in science and society, we’d love to hear from you! 🔗 jobs.ethz.ch/job/view/JOP...

🚨Not all glacier meltwater makes it to the ocean 🌊 New paper co-authored by VAW Matthias Huss shows ~95% of future glacier runoff will flow to the sea via rivers, while 5% is lost to evaporation or stored on land. High Mountain Asia hold most of what doesn't reach the ocean. doi.org/10.1029/2025...