The volume of summer Arctic Sea ice has reduced by 80 per cent since 1979. The measurement is taken every September when the ice cover is at its minimum.

Dusting off our archives to showcase some of the best stuff we’d published so far.

Scientists have discovered viruses nearly 15,000 years old in two ice samples from the Tibetan Plateau. The study conducted by the team from Ohio State University has been published in Journal microbiome. The researchers analyzed ice cores taken in 2015 from the Guliya ice cap in western China. Most of those viruses are unlike any viruses that have been catalogued to date, says the study. 

In August 2019, a funeral was held for the last patch of ice atop the Ok volcano in western Iceland. The ice patch belonged to Okjökull.