field stories

Fun Cryo Facts – Don’t eat brown snow

Stefan “Zwiebel” Thiele December 2, 2022

What about digging a snow pit on the Arctic sea-ice during a stormy day? Sure, for science this and more! [credit: Stefan Thiele]

Scientist are curious people and we all know that the best discoveries happen by chance, so we always keep our eyes open for the unusual, the new, and the weird things in life. Especially, when we are out in the Arctic doing field work and find unknown brown layers… An unexpected discovery We were out in the Arctic, somewhere Northeast of Svalbard. It was a sunny day and we had just docked t ...[Read More]

Cryo-adventures: Ninja goes south – Life and science onboard an icebreaker in the Weddell Sea (Antarctica)

Elin Darelius November 19, 2021

Hello there! I’m Ninja – a curious little LEGO-figure who doesn’t know much about the cryosphere, but who’s learning! Maybe you read about me in the blogpost by ice sheet modeler Petra Langebroek a few years ago? She brought me to the ice-core drilling camp called EASTgrip, on top of the Greenland icesheet. Together, we wrote a photo-novel to tell her sons and all of you about life and science at ...[Read More]

Of Polar Bears and Sediment Cores: a Scientific Cruise in the Arctic

Larissa van der Laan October 29, 2021

One of the most stunning views of the trip, and one every glaciologist dreams of: a calving front in the sunshine. This is the terminus of Etonbreen, a glacier that is part of the Austfonna ice cap, an ice cap located on the island of Nordaustlandet, northeastern Svalbard. Photo credit: Agust Gustavsson.

Through the scientific excursion part of the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) course ‘Arctic Late Quaternary Glacial and Marine Environmental History’, a few lucky grad students got to visit Nordaustlandet, northeastern Svalbard. This is the story of our research adventure in this beautiful, remote part of the Arctic. On a bright and early morning in late August, a group of 16 students, 4 prof ...[Read More]