Neil F. Glasser

Aberystwyth University | AU · Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences

The Cordillera Darwin Icefield (CDI) has experienced widespread retreat since the Little Ice Age (LIA, ∼1870 AD). Prior to this, information on outlet glacier dynamics is limited as there are few terrestrial observations and little mapped deglacial evidence, limiting our understanding of CDI dynamics on Holocene centennial to millennial timescales....

In High Mountain Asia (HMA) climate change threatens mountain water resources as glaciers melt, and the resulting changes in runoff and water availability are hypothesised to have considerable negative impacts on ecological and human systems. Numerous assessments of the ways in which glaciers will respond to climate warming have been published over...

The knowledge of dynamics and retreat patterns of marine-based ice streams under multiple stressors are of foremost importance for predicting Antarctic Ice Sheet response to climate changes. The Holocene palaeoglaciological record of former ice streams draining the northeast Antarctic Peninsula can elucidate the influences of changes in atmospheric...

Lentic waterbodies provide terrestrial sedimentary archives of palaeoenvironmental change in deglaciated areas of the Antarctic. Knowledge of the long-term evolution of Antarctic palaeoenvironments affords important context to the current marked impacts of climate change in the Polar regions. Here, we present a comprehensively dated, multi-proxy se...

As the world’s glaciers recede in response to a warming atmosphere, a change in the magnitude and frequency of related hazards is expected. Among the most destructive hazards are glacier lake outburst floods (GLOFs), and their future evolution is concerning for local populations and sustainable development policy. Central to this is a better unders...

As the world’s glaciers recede in response to a warming atmosphere, a change in the magnitude and frequency of related hazards is expected. Among the most destructive hazards are Glacier Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs), and their future evolution is concerning for local populations and sustainable development policy. Central to this is a better unders...

Ice streams regulate most ice mass loss in Antarctica. Determining ice stream response to warmer conditions during the Pliocene could provide insights into their future behaviour, but this is hindered by a poor representation of subglacial topography in ice-sheet models. We address this limitation using a high-resolution model for Dronning Maud Lan...

We investigate the role of glacier structures in controlling ice‐front morphology and dynamics of four Himalayan lake‐terminating glaciers over a 20‐year period. At Imja, Trakarding, Lumdin and Dang Pu glaciers, lake area was mapped between 2000 and 2020 using Landsat 5/7/8 and Sentinel‐2 imagery. Discrete glacier flow units were identified, with g...

The impact of late Cenozoic climate on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is uncertain. Poorly constrained patterns of relative ice thinning and thickening impair the reconstruction of past ice-sheet dynamics and global sea-level budgets. Here we quantify long-term ice cover of mountains protruding the ice-sheet surface in western Dronning Maud Land, usi...

The Bølling–Allerød Interstadial is known as the Windermere and Woodgrange Interstadials (sometimes simply as the Late-glacial Interstadial) in Britain and Ireland, respectively, and is correlated with Greenland Interstadial 1. This was a period of significant climatic amelioration with an expansion of pioneer shrub and tree species, notably junipe...

The Younger Dryas Stadial saw a readvance of glaciers across Britain and Ireland, where it is referred to as the Loch Lomond Stadial and the Nahanagan Stadial, respectively. In Scotland, a large ice cap/ice field formed over the Western Highlands with smaller ice fields, valley glaciers and cirque glaciers occupying the peripheral mountains and isl...

The British–Irish Ice Sheet rapidly collapsed during the main deglaciation. In less than 5 ka, ice retreated from offshore to limited ice masses in the uplands with large areas ice-free by 15 ka. Retreat was not uniform, however, with differences in the timing and pace of retreat exhibited by different sectors of the last ice sheet with evidence fr...

Ice streams regulate most ice mass loss in Antarctica. Determining their response to Pliocene warmth could provide insights into their future behaviour, but is hindered by poor representation of subglacial topography in ice-sheet models. We address this limitation using a high-resolution regional model for Dronning Maud Land (East Antarctica). We s...

Twelve ¹⁰Be and five ²⁶Al samples from the mountains of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) (1085 m) (n = 7 ¹⁰Be) and Y Glyderau (the Glyders) (1001 m) (n = 5 paired ¹⁰Be/²⁶Al) in Wales provide new insights into landscape evolution in the highest mountains in the British Isles outside of Scotland. The summits of Y Glyderau are characterised by intensely modified f...

Surge-type glaciers switch between phases of rapid and slow flow on timescales of a few years to decades. During the active surge phase, large volumes of ice are transported downglacier, creating distinct geomorphological signatures that reflect these dynamic events but ice and sediment transport remain poorly quantified. The impact of surge events...

Glacierized mountain ranges such as the Himalaya comprise a variety of glacier types, including clean and debris-covered glaciers. Monitoring their behaviour over time requires an assessment of changes in area and elevation along with surface features and geomorphology. In this paper we quantify the surface evolution of glacier systems in the Manas...

Using satellite remote sensing, this study aims to assess the validity of upscaling ground‐based structural observations of small valley glaciers, to larger‐scale ice masses that are too vast or inaccessible for field‐study or ground‐truthing. Focusing on four adjacent valley glaciers on Bylot Island, Nunavut, Arctic Canada, we establish that groun...

Using satellite remote sensing, this study aims to assess the validity of upscaling ground‐based structural observations of small valley glaciers, to larger‐scale ice masses that are too vast or inaccessible for field‐study or ground‐truthing. Focusing on four adjacent valley glaciers on Bylot Island, Nunavut, Arctic Canada, we establish that groun...

Since the mid-20th century, ice shelves around the Antarctic Peninsula have declined in extent and thickness, and some have shown signs of structural instability. Here, using satellite imagery from 1999/2000 to 2019/20 (Landsat 7 and 8, Sentinel-2 and ASTER), we measure areal changes, calculate surface flow speeds, and quantify structural changes o...

At the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), Britain and Ireland were covered by the British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS): a dynamic ice mass that comprised the southwestern extremity of the much larger European Ice Sheet Complex. However, our understanding of the extent of the BIIS has changed dramatically in recent years from a previously established view of a m...

Knowledge of glaciation in Britain and Ireland has a long and rich history, and the earliest ideas surrounding the nature of the Quaternary ice ages were developed and established based on observations in these islands. The complex and varied geology has led to a diverse range of glacial landscapes. Britain and Ireland were extensively glaciated du...

The most extensive ice sheets over Britain and Ireland formed during the Middle Pleistocene in the Anglian Stage [Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 12] and the Late Wolstonian Substage (MIS 6). The landforms and associated sediments are widely preserved in Southern England but are largely absent from the rest of Britain and Ireland because the last ice sh...

Assessing the extent to which glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) are increasing in frequency in modern times and whether their incidence is driven by anthropogenic climate change requires historical context. However, progress on this issue is hampered by incomplete GLOF inventories, especially in remote mountain regions. Here, we exploit high-res...

Glaciers respond sensitively to climate variability and change, with associated impacts on meltwater production, sea-level rise and geomorphological hazards. There is a strong societal interest to understand the current response of all types of glacier systems to climate change and how they will continue to evolve in the context of the whole glacie...

The Himalaya mountain range is characterized by highly glacierized, complex, dynamic topography. The ablation area of Himalayan glaciers often features a highly heterogeneous debris mantle comprising ponds, steep and shallow slopes of various aspects, variable debris thickness, and exposed ice cliffs associated with differing ice ablation rates. Un...

Solifluction sheets are large‐scale and extensive valley‐floor and valley‐side landforms developed widely in the British Isles from mass‐wasting of glacial and periglacial sediments during late‐glacial times. We describe their geographical distribution and review the processes that have led to their development. We use data from the Cheviot Hills,...

Iceberg calving strongly controls glacier mass loss, but the fracture processes leading to iceberg formation are poorly understood due to the stochastic nature of calving. The size distributions of icebergs produced during the calving process can yield information on the processes driving calving and also affect the timing, magnitude, and spatial d...

Glacier recession in response to climate warming has resulted in an increase in the size and number of glacial lakes. Glacial lakes are an important focus for research as they impact water resources, glacier mass balance, and some produce catastrophic glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Glaciers in Peru have retreated and thinned in recent decade...

Climate change is resulting in mass loss and the retreat of glaciers in the Andes, exposing steep valley sides, over-deepened valley bottoms, and creating glacial lakes behind moraine dams. Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) present the biggest risk posed by glacier recession in Peru. Understanding the characteristics of lakes that have failed in...

This study presents a 1:25 000 geomorphological map of the northern sector of Ulu Peninsula, James Ross Island, Antarctic Peninsula. The map covers an area of c. 250 km2, and documents the landforms and surficial sediments of one of the largest ice-free areas in Antarctica, based on remote sensing and field-based mapping. The large-scale landscape...

This study presents a 1:25 000 geomorphological map of the northern sector of Ulu Peninsula, James Ross Island, Antarctic Peninsula. The map covers an area of c. 250 km2, and documents the landforms and surficial sediments of one of the largest ice-free areas in Antarctica, based on remote sensing and field-based mapping. The large-scale landscape...

: Very small glaciers (<0.5 km2) account for more than 80% of the total number of glaciers and more than 15% of the total glacier area in the European Alps. This study seeks to better understand the impact of extreme snowfall events on the resilience of very small glaciers and ice patches in the southeastern European Alps, an area with the highest...

Mountain glaciers are key indicators of climate change. Their response is revealed by the environmental equilibrium-line altitude (ELA), i.e. the regional altitude of zero mass balance averaged over a long period of time. We introduce a simple approach for distributed modelling of the environmental ELA over the entire European Alps based on the par...

The Hindu-Kush Himalaya mountain range is characterized by highly glacierized, complex, dynamic topography. The ablation area of these glaciers is often covered a highly heterogeneous debris cover mantle comprising ponds, steep and shallow slopes of various aspects, variable debris thickness and exposed ice cliffs. These surface elements are associ...

Reconstructing the response of present-day ice sheets to past global climate change is important for constraining and refining the numerical models which forecast future contributions of these ice sheets to sea-level change. Mapping landforms is an essential step in reconstructing glacial histories. Here we present a new map of glacial landforms an...

Rock debris covers about 30% of glacier ablation areas in the Central Himalaya and modifies the impact of atmospheric conditions on mass balance. The thermal properties of supraglacial debris are diurnally variable but remain poorly constrained for monsoon-influenced glaciers over the timescale of the ablation season. We measured vertical debris pr...

Reconstructing past ice-sheet surface changes is key to testing and improving ice-sheet models. Data constraining the past behaviour of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet are sparse, limiting our understanding of its response to past, present and future climate change. Here, we report the first cosmogenic multi-nuclide (¹⁰Be, ²⁶Al, ³⁶Cl) data from bedroc...

Using an ensemble of close- and long-range remote sensing, lake bathymetry and regional meteorological data, we present a detailed assessment of the geometric changes of El Morado Glacier in the Central Andes of Chile and its adjacent proglacial lake between 1932 and 2019. Overall, the results revealed a period of marked glacier down wasting, with...

The pre-last glacial maximum (LGM) Antarctic landscape with inherited preglacial topography (Sugden and Jamieson, 2018) was significantly overprinted by multiple ice advances and retreats driven by Milankovitch’s orbital forcing parameters during the Cenozoic (Hambrey and McKelvey, 2000, Naish et al., 2009, Davies et al., 2012b). This long geomorph...

We present PATICE, a GIS database of Patagonian glacial geomorphology and recalibrated chronological data. PATICE includes 58,823 landforms and 1,669 geochronological ages, and extends from 38°S to 55°S in southern South America. We use these data to generate new empirical reconstructions of the Patagonian Ice Sheet (PIS) and subsequent ice masses...

This study analysed the actively surging Shisper Glacier in the Karakoram region of Pakistan using earth observation data from Landsat 8 OLI and Planet images. Changes in the surface glacier velocity, supraglacial moraines and debris cover were assessed using Landsat 8 data at monthly time-steps from January 2018 to May 2019. High resolution data f...

This P-4474 labelled poster was prepared for the INQUA Congress, 25-31 July 2019, Dublin, Ireland.

We present a 3D reconstruction of ice thickness distribution across the New Zealand Southern Alps at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, c. 30 – 18 ka). To achieve this, we used a perfect plasticity model which could easily be applied to other regions, hereafter termed REVOLTA (Reconstruction of Volume and Topography Automation). REVOLTA is driven by a...

Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) have become increasingly common over the past century in response to climate change, posing risks for human activities in many mountain regions. In this paper we document and reconstruct the sequence of events and impact of a large GLOF that took place in December 2015 in the Chileno Valley, Patagonia. Hydrograp...

Understanding Antarctic Peninsula glacier evolution requires distributed ice thickness and subglacial topography. To date, 80% of the Antarctic Peninsula mainland ice volume has only been determined at low-resolution (1 km post spacing) and the distributed ice thickness of glaciers on surrounding islands has never been quantified. In this study we...

Active rock glaciers are ice and debris-cored landforms common in cold arid mountains. They have not been widely described in the Patagonian Andes of southern South America and here we provide the first rock glacier inventory for the Jeinimeni region to the east of the contemporary North Patagonian Icefield. Detailed analysis of available satellite...

After the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) global mean sea level (GMSL) rise was characterized by rapid increases over short (decadal to centennial) timescales superimposed on a longer term secular rise and these have been termed meltwater pulses (MWPs). In this paper we review the timing, impact and nature of these and the effects of rapid drainage of l...

The Welsh Ice Cap was a dynamic component of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet at the Last Glacial Maximum, but there are few chronological constraints on the pace and timing of deglaciation. This paper presents new geomorphological and geochronological evidence that constrains the timing of the separation of the Welsh Ice Cap from the Irish Sea Ice...

In recent years luminescence dating has increasingly been applied to date glaciofluvial sediments, but uncertainties about the degree of bleaching of the luminescence signal at deposition make dating of such sediments challenging. Here we test a new approach for luminescence dating of glaciofluvial sediments, based on the analysis of rock cores dri...

Debris surface temperature is a function of debris characteristics and energy fluxes at the debris surface. However, spatial and temporal variability in debris surface temperature, and the debris properties that control it, are poorly constrained. Here, near‐surface debris temperature (Ts) is reported for 16 sites across the lower elevations of Khu...

Despite recent research identifying a clear anthropogenic impact on glacier recession, the effect of recent climate change on glacier-related hazards is at present unclear. Here we present the first global spatio-temporal assessment of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) focusing explicitly on lake drainage following moraine dam failure. These flo...

The environmental, socioeconomic and cultural significance of glaciers has motivated several countries to regulate activities on glaciers and glacierized surroundings. However, laws written to specifically protect mountain glaciers have only recently been considered within national political agendas. Glacier Protection Laws (GPLs) originate in coun...

The prevalence and increased frequency of high-magnitude Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) in the Chilean and Argentinean Andes suggests this region will be prone to similar events in the future as glaciers continue to retreat and thin under a warming climate. Despite this situation, monitoring of glacial lake development in this region has been...

We present new data regarding the past dynamics of Marguerite Trough Ice Stream, George VI Ice Shelf and valley glaciers from Ablation Point Massif on Alexander Island, Antarctic Peninsula. This ice-free oasis preserves a geological record of ice stream lateral moraines, ice-dammed lakes, ice-shelf moraines and valley glacier moraines, which we dat...

This study analyses the behaviour of an actively surging glacier, Hispar, in Pakistan using remote sensing methods. We used 15 m panchromatic band of Landsat 8 OLI from 2013 to 2017 to assess the changes in glacier velocity, glacier geomorphology and supraglacial water bodies. For the velocity estimation, correlation image analysis (CIAS) was used,...

Many glaciers in the Central Himalaya are covered with rock debris that modifies the transfer of heat from the atmosphere to the underlying ice. These debris-covered glaciers are experiencing rapid mass loss at rates that have accelerated during the last two decades. Quantifying recent and future glacier mass change requires understanding the relat...

Meltwater and runoff from glaciers in High Mountain Asia is a vital freshwater resource for one fifth of the Earth's population. Between 13% and 36% of the region's glacierized areas exhibit surface debris cover and associated supraglacial ponds whose hydrological buffering roles remain unconstrained. We present a high-resolution meltwater hydrogra...

High Mountain Asia contains the largest volume of glacier ice outside the polar regions, and contain the headwaters of some of the largest rivers in central Asia. These glaciers are losing mass at a mean rate of between -0.18 and -0.5 m water equivalent per year. While glaciers in the Himalaya are generally shrinking, those in the Karakoram have ex...

Despite recent research identifying a clear anthropogenic impact on glacier recession, the effect of recent climate change on glacier-related hazards is at present unclear. Here we present the first global spatio-temporal assessment of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) focusing explicitly on lake drainage following moraine dam failure. These flo...