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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Why a palm-fringed Pacific island harbours pools of ice

Hawaiian peaks host icy pockets year-round, but the cold spots are at risk from climate change.
A snow covered crater on Mauna Kea, Hawaii

A crater on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, a 4,200-metre-tall volcanic peak that shelters patches of frozen soil on its slopes even in the summer. Credit: Getty

The island of Hawaii is renowned for its tropical climate, but the stony deserts on two of its volcanoes support unlikely patches of permanent ice.

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Nature 565, 136 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-07822-y

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