In this blog post Dr Levan Tielidze from Monash University and Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future shares insights from a new glacier assessment of Heard Island. Although rarely visited and largely unknown, Heard Island plays an outsized role in understanding how the Southern Ocean cryosphere is responding to global warming. The island is one of the few sub-Antarctic locations with active g ...[Read More]
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Cryospheric Sciences
Cryo Adventures – Discovering the beauty of polar winter
Only one month after starting my PhD, I found myself in a tiny plane flying over one of the most beautiful and breathtaking landscapes I’ve ever seen. I was on the way to the northernmost settlement in the world – the research village Ny-Ålesund. What I expected from the trip: cold temperatures, darkness, and lots of snow. What I found instead: stunning views, magical colors, friendly people, and ...[Read More]
Cryospheric Sciences
Did you know: Soot is a melting agent for glaciers in Peru and China
Mountain glaciers are melting rapidly due to global warming. This process is being intensified by increasingly extreme natural events, such as forest fires and air pollution from human activities. One of the main culprits is a tiny but powerful pollutant called black carbon (commonly known as soot) which darkens the surface of the snow and makes it met faster under the sun. But how much of this po ...[Read More]
Cryospheric Sciences
The Proglacial Puzzle: Sampling of Glacier-fed Lakes in Greenland
Would you like to follow the endeavours of a small team working in the ice-marginal terrain in South-West Greenland? They set out to investigate proglacial lakes using sediment coring, water sampling and gas collections (figure 1), aiming to better understand methane dynamics, proglacial terrain development and the environmental drivers behind methane production in glacially influenced lake system ...[Read More]
Cryospheric Sciences
Tracking the Footprints of a Vanishing Glaciers in the Greater Caucasus
In this week’s blog, Levan Tielidze tells us about his recent glacier study from the Greater Caucasus. By combining geomorphology, remote sensing, and historical cartography, the team reconstructed nearly 200 years of glacier and climate change across one of the world’s most dynamic cryospheric frontiers. Glaciers’ transformation provides a high-resolution archive of post-Little Ice Age climate dy ...[Read More]
Cryospheric Sciences
A Scientific Quest from Australia to Antarctica
In this week’s blog, Levan Tielidze tells us about his participation in a scientific expedition to Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, during the 2024–2025 field season. The journey, commencing in Australia and passing through South Africa, led him to the “surreal” and “awe-inspiring” Antarctic landscape. The team, a collaborative effort from Monash University, and the Un ...[Read More]
Cryospheric Sciences
EGU 25 – we’ve got you covered
Are you attending this year’s EGU General Assembly virtual or in person? No matter the way you attend or if it’s your first time or you are coming to Vienna for the GA for years, today we share with you some cryosphere programme highlights and general tips on how to make the most out of your conference experience. Every year, we summarise the main cryosphere events for you, those for inspira ...[Read More]
Cryospheric Sciences
Field notes from the Chhota Shigri Glacier: A journey of science and survival in the Himalaya
I’m Himanshu Kaushik, a PhD student working under the guidance of Dr. Mohd Farooq Azam at the Indian Institute of Technology Indore (India). Seven years ago, I took my first steps onto the Chhota Shigri Glacier (CSG) in the Indian (Western) Himalaya, and it felt like stepping into another world. Surrounded by the towering peaks, it seemed otherworldly and humbling. After that first expeditio ...[Read More]
Cryospheric Sciences
Uncovering Antarctica’s hidden subglacial lake network with satellite altimetry
Measuring ice surface elevation changes with satellite laser altimeters flying hundreds of kilometres above Earth tells us where the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are thinning or thickening and how much they contribute to sea level rise. Beyond that though, it can also reveal hidden activity of subglacial lakes filling and draining beneath the ice and meltwater rivers flowing ou ...[Read More]
Cryospheric Sciences
Crossing borders – Glacier fieldwork at Sulitjelma/Salajekna
The time I first set foot at the university, I didn’t expect that two weeks later I would be looking at a backpack more than half my size, turning my back to the shelter of our rental car and walking almost 100 km in the Norwegian Arctic. Howling winds, heavy backpacks, daunting bridges, and endless beauty – that’s how I would describe my first experience with glacier fieldwork. I, Silje Waa ...[Read More]