Here is the link for the paper which was published =called Global mapping of lake-terminating glaciers 6/ where I'm a co-author.
It's a global effort to
Here’s a concise summary of
“Global mapping of lake-terminating glaciers” in Earth System Science Data (Vol. 18, 2026): (
ESSD)
er
The pap presents the
first global inventory of lake-terminating glaciers, using
RGI 7.0 glacier outlines and manual interpretation of satellite imagery near the year 2000. The authors classify glacier termini into categories based on how much direct contact they have with proglacial lakes, filling an important gap because prior global glacier inventories identified marine-terminating glaciers more consistently than lake-terminating ones. (
ESSD)
The main finding is that
3,837 of 274,531 glaciers worldwide, or about 1.4%, were identified as lake-terminatin
g. Of these,
2,734 glaciers (1.0%) were placed in the strongest direct-contact category, while 1,103 (0.4%) were in a somewhat less extensive lake-contact category. Another
1,392 glaciers (0.5%) had small lakes near the terminus but were not classified as truly lake-terminating. (
ESSD)
Although lake-terminating glaciers are a
small share by number, they matter disproportionately because they tend to be
larger glaciers. The paper notes that glaciers with lake termini make up 11.4% o
f total global glacier area, showing that this glacier type is especially important for glacier change, hazard assessment, and modeling. The regional share varies widely, from
0.5% to 6.7% a
cross the 19 RGI regions, with especially notable regional importance in places such as Scandinavia. (
ESSD)
Why this matters: proglacial lakes can affect
glacier melt, flow speed, and hazards, including processes linked to glacier retreat and outburst-flood risk. By creating a globally consistent dataset, the study gives researchers a better foundation for
global glacier modeling and for understanding where lakes may be influencing glacier behavior. (
ESSD)
The dataset produced for the study is publicly available on
Zenodo, and the paper also notes that these results can be used to improve the
terminus-type attribute in RGI 7.0. The author list includes
Stanislav Kutuzov, affiliated with
The The Ohio State University School of Earth Sciences and the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Cen
ter. (
ESSDV
Stanislav Kutuzov
School of Earth Sciences, Ohio State The University
Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, principal investigator
