Chalaati Glacier is one of the largest glaciers in the Greater Caucasus and has undergone expansive mass loss. In this week’s blog post, Levan Tielidze tells us about Chalaati Glacier variations in the past centuries. His recent study was conducted based on surface exposure dating technique, dendrochronology (tree ring analysis), lichenometry, and satellite imagery. They found out that the Chalaat ...[Read More]
Climate Change & Cryosphere – Glacier retreat poses new challenges in the Central Andes
Glaciers on the slopes of San Jose Volcano, Maipo River Basin [Credit: Thomas Schatte].
When you hear of Chilean glaciers, you probably think about the large glaciers of Patagonia. However, glaciers can be found further north in Chile as well (see this previous post). While the melting of the Patagonian glaciers mainly affects the global human population by contributing to sea level rise, the retreat of glaciers in central Chile affects the local human population directly in terms of ...[Read More]
Exploring the hidden plumbing of glaciers with Cryoegg
Plumbing is something we take for granted: the pipes that bring us water to wash and drink, and the pipes that take the waste water away again. We see the taps and basins in our kitchen and bathroom – but the pipes are hidden away under the floor or inside the walls – and we mostly ignore them until there’s a leak or a blockage! It turns out that glaciers have plumbing too – and ...[Read More]
The future of Arctic sea ice
Figure 1: Sketch that shows the presence (in white, ‘ice covered’) and absence (in blue, ‘ice free’, i.e. less than 1 million km2 of sea ice) of Arctic sea ice for different levels of warming (X axis) and the different months of the year (Y axis), based on the extrapolation of observations. The estimated warming in 2018 is marked with ‘today’. Figure credit: Fig. 1 of Notz and Stroeve (2018).
The illustration above shows a sketch of the evolution of Arctic sea ice for different levels of warming and the different months of the year, based on the simple extrapolation of observations. A new study, in which I was involved, uses the latest available global climate models and shows that the Arctic Ocean could become practically ice free at the end of the summer for the first time before 205 ...[Read More]
Image of the week – The curious case of “glacier mice”
Did you know that glacier mice can be found at the surface of some glaciers? They’re not the tiny rodent you might be imagining, but actually little balls of moss, which appear to be full of mysteries still to be uncovered… What is a “glacier mouse”? On glaciers around the world, mostly at high-latitudes in the northern hemisphere, little balls of moss develop and move around the ice. Origi ...[Read More]
Careers outside of academia
Is it time to step into your new career? Photo credit: Maria Tsekhmistrenko, Imaggeo
You’ve just finished your PhD or postdoc… now what? Perhaps you’re thinking of a non-academic career, but don’t know where to start, or which skills you need? Up to 70% of scientists move into non-academic careers after graduation (The Royal Society, 2010). But finding useful information and advice is hard. In today’s blog, we summarise the EGU Webinar ‘Careers outside of academia’ which took plac ...[Read More]
Did you know… the Andes are so cryo-diverse?
Extending for almost 8,000 km along the west of South America, the Andes are the longest continental mountain range in the world. They portray an impressive richness and diversity of cryospheric features, including: the most substantial extension of tropical glaciers on Earth, one of the highest densities of rock glaciers, the largest glacierized area in the Southern Hemisphere outside Antarctica, ...[Read More]
Did you know… about the ice content in mountain permafrost?
Photo 1: Permafrost monitoring site at Stockhorn ridge (foreground), in front of the glacierized Monte Rosa massif (Valais, Swiss Alps). Photo credit: Coline Mollaret
Through the eyes of a researcher studying mountain processes in the European Alps in the context of a global warming climate, let’s discover how geophysical methods help to better understand frozen ground! Permafrost defines a thermal state, i.e. permafrost is soil, sediment, or rock that remains at or below 0°C during at least two consecutive years. As permafrost is only defined by its temperatur ...[Read More]
Did you know… the surface of melting glaciers is one of the most radioactive places on Earth?
Small cryoconite holes covered by thin ice lids. Photo credit : Giovanni Baccolo
Recent studies show that glaciers are significantly affected by pollution, and in general by human activities, but few people would imagine that their surface contains traces of nuclear contamination and radioactivity. It has been recently claimed that high amounts of radioactivity have accumulated on glaciers, only beaten by the radioactivity levels of sites where nuclear incidents and tests have ...[Read More]
Did you know… tropical cyclones cause large snowfall on Kilimanjaro’s glaciers?
Tropical cyclones are an important part of the weather in the southwest Indian Ocean each year, from November through April. These storms can cause massive destruction and loss of life when they make landfall, which happens most often on the islands of Mauritius and Madagascar and the coastal region of Mozambique. However, until recently, relatively little was known about their impacts on the high ...[Read More]