Accelerating glacier recession contrasts rock glacier stability in a temperate mountain range.
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 42384790.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.aee5865.
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Abstract
Cryospheric landforms play a critical role in alpine hydrology and ecosystems. Using historical and contemporary data spanning nearly six decades (1967-2024), we assessed elevation change for glaciers, rock glaciers, and perennial snowfields and the thermal response of streams in the Teton Range, Wyoming, United States. Glaciers and snowfields thinned at -0.84 ± 0.07 meters per year (m year<sup>-1</sup>) and -0.59 ± 0.04 m year<sup>-1</sup> between 2014 and 2022, a ~7-fold increase relative to 1967-2014, driven by warming summer temperatures. In contrast, rock glaciers are near equilibrium (-0.05 ± 0.05 m year<sup>-1</sup>) and saw no change in rate. Since 2015, snowfield-fed streams have warmed rapidly (+3.4°C), whereas glacier- and rock glacier-fed streams have warmed at lower magnitudes (+0.9° and +0.6°C, respectively). Our results demonstrate the greater resilience of rock glaciers to atmospheric warming, highlighting the critical role that these features will play as glaciers and perennial snowfields are lost.