glaciology
The Welsh Ice Cap Interaction
The following Google Earth animation is an ‘optimal’ numerical reconstruction of the Late Devensian Welsh Ice Cap, derived in the publication ‘The last Welsh Ice Cap: Part 1′. Timeslices of the ice-surface velocity begin at 27.8 ka BP and refresh every 200 years. To view properly: Make sure the time slider is zoomed out to [...]
Read moreLake Vostok Reached
Reports are circulating that the Russian team drilling into Lake Vostok have finally reached their target, just in time before the onset of the Antarctic winter. The total depth drilled through the ice sheet stands at 3,768 metres, though this information is still yet to be confirmed. Lake Vostok has remained sealed off from the [...]
Read moreNext Ice Age on hold
A study recently published in Nature Geoscience has suggested that due to current atmospheric concentrations of CO2, the next ice age will fail to materialise on time. The authors used past interglacials as analogies to the present, and by assuming that ice growth mainly responds to insolation and CO2 forcing predicted our current warm period would end [...]
Read moreThe Greenland Ice Sheet
Off the back of the BBC’s Frozen Planet, Alun Hubbard asked me to create a website detailing the research him and his team are carrying out on the Greenland Ice Sheet. The site is now up on the university webpages at www.aber.ac.uk/greenland and encourage everyone to have a look. As well as presenting the various scientific projects, [...]
Read moreGlacial karst: Descent into the Gornergletscher
The Gornergletscher is the second largest glacier system in the Alps, found on the western side of the Monte Rosa Massif flowing down towards the town of Zermatt. The glacier was the centre of interest for the Italian La Venta team during the 80′s and 90′s, during which time they found, explored and described a [...]
Read moreA new Arctic sea ice record?
Measurements taken from NASA’s Aqua satellite have shown that the area covered be sea ice in the Arctic Ocean this year came narrowly close to the record low set in 2007, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). The animation below shows how sea ice cover has changed since early March until [...]
Read moreJersey to Scilly
I joined Gambo for another short voyage, this time from the Channel Islands to the Isles of Scilly. The plan was to carry out some swath bathymetry off the islands looking for any potential glacial features (see figure) before she returned to Aber once more. After waiting around Jersey for favourable winds to help us make [...]
Read moreThe Welsh Ice Cap
During the last glacial maximum ~20 thousand years ago, Britain and Ireland became engulfed by a large and dynamic ice sheet. Wales played an important part, hosting its own semi-independent ice cap with accumulation centres located on Snowdonia, the Cambrian Mountains and the Brecon Beacons. Ice is thought to have covered all summits in Wales, [...]
Read moreWhen glaciers attack
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq_pg5gi2PI ‘…miraculously, no-one is killed.’ The Miage Glacier, on the Italian side of Mont Blanc.
Read moreBottom thickening of the EAIS
A study recently published in Science has prompted a radical rethink on how ice-sheets evolve and accumulate ice. The potential discovery of a new physical mechanism suggests that ice extensively melts and re-freezes at the base of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, enough so to change the shape and elevation of the ice-surface. Radar imagery [...]
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