On this day · archive
A funeral for ice that no longer moved
On August 18, 2019, people gathered in Iceland to memorialize Okjökull after it had thinned so far that it no longer moved as a glacier. Remnant ice remained, but its glacier status did not.
8
events in todayish file
2019
Icelanders memorialize Okjökull after it loses glacier status.
A diminished body of ice was given a ceremony, making environmental change visible while acknowledging the remnants that survived.
A funeral names a loss and gives people a place to stand beside it. For Okjökull, the loss was its status as a glacier after the shrinking ice mass could no longer move under its own weight.
The ceremony translated climate change from graph and projection into local geography. Remnant ice still occupied parts of the mountain, but it no longer behaved as the glacier that had once covered six square miles.
August 18 records an unusual public ritual with a precise purpose. The ice had not entirely vanished; the moving glacier had, and the distinction made the changed landscape no less consequential.
The full record
8 entries from the day’s archive, filed year by year with a note on what each one leaves behind.
People gather in Iceland to memorialize Okjökull after the dwindling ice mass lost its status as a glacier; remnant ice remained.
The ceremony marked the loss of a moving glacier, not the disappearance of every patch of ice.
Climate
The Turku terror attack occurs in Finland when a knifeman kills two and injures eight.
The knife attack killed two people and wounded eight in Turku.
Violence
A terrorist attack on Israel's Highway 12 near the Egyptian border kills 16 and injures 40.
The coordinated attack near the Egyptian border left civilians and security personnel dead and injured.
Violence
War of Afghanistan: The Uzbin Valley ambush occurs.
The ambush became a costly episode for French forces in Afghanistan.
Conflict
The President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, resigns under threat of impeachment.
The resignation ended Pervez Musharraf’s presidency amid impeachment pressure.
Politics
A massive power blackout hits the Indonesian island of Java; affecting almost 100 million people, it is one of the largest and most widespread power outages in history.
The Java blackout disrupted daily life for nearly 100 million people.
Infrastructure
The Soviet Union's robotic probe Luna 24 successfully lands on the Moon.
Luna 24 reached the Moon on a mission that would return lunar soil to Earth.
Space
Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in the United States.
The U.S. publication brought Nabokov’s controversial novel into a new national debate.
Culture