Cryospheric Sciences

Image of the Week — Microbes munch on iron beneath glaciers

Sophie Nixon March 31, 2017

Experiment showing that microbes in subglacial sediment reduce more iron when it's colder (blue lines, i.e. 4°C ) than when it's warmer (red lines, 15°C.) [Credit: adapted from Nixon et al, (2017) Fig.1] Click here here to enlarge the image.

The interface between a glacier and its underlying bedrock is known as the subglacial zone. Here lie subglacial sediments, the product of mechanical crushing of the rock by the glacial ice. Despite their lack of sunlight, nutrients and oxygen, subglacial sediments host active and diverse communities of microorganisms. What we (don’t) know about subglacial microorganisms The past few decades ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – Ice on Fire (Part 2)

Emma C. Smith March 24, 2017

A glacier cave on the flank of Mutnovsky volcano, Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia. Sunlight filters through the glacial ice and a stream runs through the cave - fed by volcanic hot springs [Credit: Sergey Krasnoshchokov, National Geographic].

This week’s image looks like something out of a science fiction movie, but sometimes what we find on Earth is even more strange than what we can imagine! Where the heat of volcanoes meets the icy cold of glaciers strange and wonderful landscapes are formed. The Kamchatka Peninsula, in the far East of Russia, has the highest concentration of active volcanoes on Earth. Its climate is cold due ...[Read More]

Image of The Week – Ice Flows!

Sammie Buzzard March 17, 2017

By changing factors such as snowfall and temperature players can alter the ice flow and make sure that icebergs starts to form just where the penguins want to dive down and catch fish, but get it wrong and there’s a seal waiting! [Credit: Still image from the Ice Flows game]

Portraying ice sheets and shelves to the general public can be tricky. They are in remote locations, meaning the majority of people will never have seen them. They also change over timescales that are often hard to represent without showing dramatic images of more unusual events such as the collapse of the Larsen B Ice Shelf. However, an app launched in the summer at the SCAR (Scientific Committe ...[Read More]

Image of the Week — Hidden lakes in East Antarctica !

Sophie Berger March 10, 2017

Underwater picture of englacial lake 4m below the surface [Credit: S. Lhermitte].

Who would have guessed that such a beautiful picture could get you interviewed for the national news?! Certainly not me! And yet, the photo of this englacial lake (a lake trapped within the ice in Antarctica), or rather science behind it, managed to capture the media attention and brought me, one of the happy co-author of this study, on the Belgian television… But what do we see on the pic ...[Read More]

Quantarctica: Mapping Antarctica has never been so easy!

George Roth March 8, 2017

One of the most time-consuming and stressful parts of any Antarctic research project is simply making a map. Whether it’s plotting your own data points, lines, or images; making the perfect “Figure 1” for your next paper, or replying to a collaborator who says “Just show me a map!,” it seems that quick and effective map-making is a skill that we take for granted. However, finding good map data and ...[Read More]

Image of The Week – The Pulsating Ice Sheet!

Emma C. Smith March 3, 2017

Figure 1: (a) Ice sheet at its most advanced state, the terminus is grounded 300 m beneath sea level (b) An ocean-warming event triggers retreat (c) Retreat is amplified by enhanced calving as the ice sheet retreats into deeper water (d) After the collapse, the ice sheet is in its most retreated position. Isostatic adjustment uplifts the bed (and sill) which will allow the ice sheet to advance again. Insets show a close-up around the sill. [Credit: Bassis et al., 2017]

During the last glacial period (~110,000-12,500 years ago) the Laurentide Ice Sheet (North America) experienced rapid, episodic, mass loss events – known as Heinrich events. These events are particularly curious as they occurred during the colder portions of the last glacial period, when we would intuitively expect large-scale mass loss during warmer times. In order to understand mass loss m ...[Read More]