In this week’s blog, Levan Tielidze tells us about the new glacier history from the Southern Alps of New Zealand, an important piece of information to better understand the climatic history of Earth during the Quaternary, the current geologic period. Quaternary glaciations Geochronological dating of glacial moraines is useful for determining the extent and timing of past glaciation and for reconst ...[Read More]
Lights out: cryosphere instruments perfectly placed to study solar eclipse
On 04 December 2021, only a handful of people in Antarctica were fortunate enough to experience a total eclipse. As well as spectacular views—including a brief window of totality that darkened the midnight sun for 2 minutes—this phenomenon is known to affect the flow of energy between the Northern and Southern hemispheres of the ionosphere. Because eclipses in Antarctica only happen once every ~20 ...[Read More]
Summer 2022: A perfect storm for Alpine glaciers
The summer of 2022 is shaping up to be a perfect storm for Alpine glaciers. By a strange coincidence, all the factors that could adversely affect glacial dynamics seem to have come into agreement. Let’s find out why. What controls the behavior of Alpine glaciers? Snow, temperature, weather conditions and the properties of snow and ice. These are the most important factors governing the life ...[Read More]
The Cryosphere meets the Twittersphere
Twitter is a place that can be full of an overwhelming amount of information, and often it becomes difficult to hear about new information amongst the noise of all the tweeting. To help our fellow cryo-enthusiasts learn more about equality, diversity and accessibility within the cryosphere, we’re highlighting a few twitter accounts that we think everyone should follow! Gender equality: @womeninPol ...[Read More]
Cryo Adventures – Droning on glaciers and ice caps in Kyrgyzstan
Drones are not only a cool toy to play with. They are also a useful instrument to monitor and study glaciers and ice caps. By taking thousands of images flying above the ice, we can make 3D models of ice masses at centimetre resolution. Using drones, we can now survey small to medium sized glaciers and ice caps in unprecedented detail. In recent years, we have conducted several surveys on glaciers ...[Read More]
What are Snow Mechanics and why should we care?
Every time we walk, ski, drive or build upon snow, we’re relying upon the theory of Snow Mechanics; but what is that and why should we care? Mechanics is the engineering terminology used to describe “the branch of applied mathematics dealing with motion and forces producing motion” (Oxford Languages) or more simply, the study of motion, in our case the motion of snow. What causes snow to move? Ge ...[Read More]
Did you know… that glaciers can sing?
Have you ever wondered what the voice of a glacier sounds like? Well, listen here! And if you want to know how the glacier makes these sounds, then let’s take a walk on the ice side… Close your eyes and think of the time you were in the middle of the mountains. On a snow plain, a glacier or a frozen lake; just you. You hear your footsteps in the snow, crunching ice. The wind blows through your hoo ...[Read More]
Meet Carleen Tijm-Reijmer, our fearless CR Division President!
Every division within the European Geosciences Union is led by a senior and junior representative, who oversee the happenings within their respective divisions. The senior representative of the Cryosphere Division is Carleen Tijm-Reijmer, who we’ve managed to track down here at EGU! We ask Carleen to explain her role within EGU and the CR Division. Please tell us a little bit about yourself!   ...[Read More]
What cryoscientists should expect for a Covid-regulated EGU22
After two (long) years of remote work and virtual conferencing, we are looking forward to engaging with fellow scientists in-person at the upcoming EGU22 General Assembly! But, with Covid-19 still in the air, this year’s conference will be held as a hybrid format. In this way, EGU22 will be modified to comply with Austrian pandemic restrictions, as well as introduce new elements to the programme t ...[Read More]
Ice-hot news: A cryo-summary of the new IPCC assessment report!
We have waited eight years for it, and it is finally out: the 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (a.k.a. « IPCC AR6 »)! And it is more than 10,000 pages long across Working Groups! Fortunately, a synthesis report integrating the findings of all three working groups should be released in Autumn 2022. However, we, at the EGU Cryosphere Blog, thought it might be us ...[Read More]