A new study published on August 7, 2025, in Nature Geoscience reveals unprecedented insights into the speed at which glaciers sculpt the Earth's landscape. Researchers, led by a geographer from Victoria University, analyzed 85% of the world's glaciers using advanced machine learning techniques to predict erosion rates. The findings indicate that 99% of glaciers erode the Earth's surface at a rate of 0.02 to 2.68 millimeters per year, a pace comparable to the thickness of a credit card.
The international research effort involved specialists from Grenoble-Alpes University, Dartmouth College, and the University of California, Irvine, and was supported by the Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization. The study highlights that factors such as temperature, subglacial water presence, bedrock type, and geothermal heat significantly influence erosion rates. Understanding these complex processes is crucial for natural landscape management, long-term nuclear waste storage, and tracking the movement of nutrients and radioactive particles within ecosystems. The foundational work for this project began when the lead researcher was a doctoral candidate at Dalhousie University before its completion at Victoria University.