Stanislav Kutuzov, affiliated with The Ohio State University School of Earth Sciences and principal investigator at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, is a co-author on a new paper published in Earth System Science Data that presents the first global inventory of lake-terminating glaciers.

The study identifies glaciers with termini in direct contact with proglacial lakes using Randolph Glacier Inventory 7.0 outlines and manual interpretation of satellite imagery near the year 2000. The resulting dataset provides a globally consistent picture of where lake-terminating glaciers occur and how common they are.

The researchers found that 3,837 of 274,531 glaciers worldwide, or about 1.4%, terminate in lakes. Although that is a small share by number, these glaciers account for 11.4% of global glacier area, showing that lake-terminating glaciers represent an outsized share of the world’s glacier cover.

The new inventory is important because proglacial lakes can influence glacier melt, glacier flow, and related hazards. By creating a consistent global dataset, the study gives researchers a stronger foundation for glacier modeling and for evaluating where lakes may be influencing glacier behavior.

The paper, "Global mapping of lake-terminating glaciers", was published March 3, 2026, in Earth System Science Data.