Extensive glacier loss in the coterminous United States.

Authors

Andrew G Fountain, Bryce Glenn, Christopher McNeil, Brian Menounos

Published in

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Volume 123. Issue 43. Pages e2600941123. Oct 27, 2026. Epub Oct 12, 2026.

Abstract

Glaciers populate the mountain ranges of the western conterminous United States and despite their importance to alpine hydrology, their area and volume change have never been comprehensively evaluated. Our study shows that since the mid-twentieth century about one-quarter of the glaciers have disappeared and the overall area and volume are reduced by one-third. The pattern of glacier shrinkage suggests most glaciers in the conterminous United States are largely maintained by local topographic influences due to their small size. These results improve our understanding of evolving high alpine hydrology and importance to ecosystem processes.

PMID:
42863089
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 13 Oct 2026.

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