Sponsor
This study was funded by the US Department of Agriculture, US Forest Service, 23-CS-11132400-355, and we appreciated the support and guidance of two program managers (ret), Becky Gravenmier and Erik Johnson, who were instrumental in the early stages of the project. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US Government.
Published In
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-12-2026
Subjects
Glaciers
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.
Rights
Copyright (c) 2026 The Authors Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
DOI
10.1073/pnas.2600941123
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/45198
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Citation Details
Fountain, A. G., Glenn, B., McNeil, C., & Menounos, B. (2026). Extensive glacier loss in the coterminous United States. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 123(43).