Women make up 50.8% of the world’s population, yet fewer than 30% of the world’s researchers are women. Of this percentage, women of colour comprise around 5%, with less than 1% represented in geoscience faculty positions. Women are published less, paid less, and do not progress as far in their careers as men. Even within our EGU community, women account for only one third of all members, and make ...[Read More]
Even before its publication, my partner stumbled over the book The Quickening by Elizabeth Rush on Twitter and send it to me. In this book, Rush describes her journey to Thwaites Glacier and – as I was very curious about it – I bought it immediately after its release. It is not only documentary work about the journey, but also a meditation on responsibility, motherhood and life in a world o ...[Read More]
The cryosphere comprises all the ice on Earth, from glaciers in Antarctica, icebergs floating in the ocean, to millimetric ice found in the soils. Soil can hold ice wedges and ice lenses, but there are small ice reservoirs that are usually overlooked: the pore ice. Pore ice is an unknown compartment whose role regarding matter degradation is yet to be determined… stay with us and you will see that ...[Read More]
Kggk kggk kggk – the sound of crampons accompanies me. A thin layer of snow covers the slippery ice while I pull a sled. As I wipe my hand over the snow, underneath, a blue color glitters in the sun (Figure 2). In the last days it has been snowing in the White Desert (Antarctica). All blue ice we could see before is temporarily covered by a thin blanket, perfect to pull a sled. However, this snow ...[Read More]
Sastrugi are significant features in glaciology, providing valuable insights into wind patterns, snow dynamics, and surface processes. So although at first sight they may be easy to walk over (quite literally), their patterns and features can tell us more than you might think, so next time take a moment to look and see the story they have to tell… The Song of Sastrugi The wind’s icy b ...[Read More]
We would like to introduce Daniel Farinotti to you, our Cryosphere Division incoming deputy president, who will take over as division president from 2025-2027. For that, our Cryosphere Division outreach officer, Larissa van der Laan, interviewed Daniel at the EGU General Assembly in April 2024, to ask him a few questions about himself and his view of this exciting role within the EGU. Larissa: Hi ...[Read More]
Mastering the art of science communication is becoming more and more important, especially in the realm of climate science! Training and practice can really help PhD students acquire this skill. With this in mind, the DEEPICE project, a training network of 15 PhD students, has developed a wide range of activities to train the DEEPICE students, including the creation of a series of educational vide ...[Read More]
In November last year (see this post), we promised to provide you an update of what happened with Antarctic sea ice during the year 2023 – a year of an exceptionally low extent. In this post, we try our best to discuss the conditions that lead to (part of) the recent loss in Antarctic sea ice, including atmospheric and ocean processes. How sea ice usually works… One of the ways scientists h ...[Read More]
Are you planning on attending the EGU General Assembly happening very shortly in Vienna, Austria? – We are! As every year, we are very much looking forward to connecting with you during the various events and are very excited to already share some of our highlights with you today. Keep an eye open on social media for daily cryosphere highlights during EGU! Would you like to meet us? Find us ...[Read More]
We know that climate change is affecting many aspects of what we have considered “stable” throughout a long period of modern times. One of many impacted and changing factors is snow and thereby also snow meltwater. One way to study meltwater is to trace it by the usage of stable water isotope signals and we plan to use it by asking: Are we underestimating the portions of snow meltwater in differen ...[Read More]
