Guide on Extinct Glaciers

GLIMS tracks extinct glaciers by marking their status as "gone". What do we mean by "extinct"? A glacier that has completely melted away, or shrunk to the extent that it no longer is considered a glacier, is considered extinct.

We're interested in glaciers that have disappeared, or been de-listed as "glaciers", within the last 50-100 years or so. Obviously, many glaciers have gone away since the last ice age, but we're interested in those that are victims of more recent changes to climate.

Some glaciers have completely melted away -- those are the easy cases. Some have become small ice patches that would no longer be considered glaciers. Dead debris-covered ice is usually not called "a glacier" anymore, even if we might say that it is "glacial ice". So, there is some subjectivity to this, but if you, expert as you are in your geographic area, would say that an ice body is no longer a glacier, then we will call it "extinct" on your authority (subject to review by others).

Because the fundamental entity in the GLIMS Glacier Database is the glacier outline, data on extinct glaciers need to be tied to existing records in the GLIMS Glacier Database, or to newly contributed outlines.

Can you contributed data on extinct glaciers?

If you have data on extinct glaciers, we would appreciate your contribution! If records on these glaciers are already in GLIMS, please send us a list (in text, spreadsheet, or similar tabular format) with columns:

1. GLIMS glacier ID (e.g. G123456E12345N)
2. Date, or year, of disappearance
3. Estimated uncertainty in the date, in years
4. Description of source of knowledge that the glacier is gone, e.g. "Fieldwork by Jane Doe", "Landsat 8 image ID XYZ", etc.