Accelerating glacier recession contrasts rock glacier stability in a temperate mountain range

Cryospheric landforms play a critical role in alpine hydrology and ecosystems. Using historical and contemporary data spanning nearly six decades (1967–2024), we assessed elevation change for glaciers, rock glaciers, and perennial snowfields and the thermal response of streams in the Teton Range, Wyoming, United States. Glaciers and snowfields thinned at −0.84 ± 0.07 meters per year (m year −1 ) and −0.59 ± 0.04 m year −1 between 2014 and 2022, a ~7-fold increase relative to 1967–2014, driven by warming summer temperatures. In contrast, rock glaciers are near equilibrium (−0.05 ± 0.05 m year −1 ) and saw no change in rate. Since 2015, snowfield-fed streams have warmed rapidly (+3.4°C), whereas glacier- and rock glacier–fed streams have warmed at lower magnitudes (+0.9° and +0.6°C, respectively). Our results demonstrate the greater resilience of rock glaciers to atmospheric warming, highlighting the critical role that these features will play as glaciers and perennial snowfields are lost.