CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Iceland

Cryo-adventures – Undertaking Cryo-Fieldwork in a Global Pandemic!

September 3, 2021
Cryo-adventures – Undertaking Cryo-Fieldwork in a Global Pandemic!
Looking out over Fjallsjökull from the top of the nearby moraine ridge. Photo credit: Nathaniel Baurley

Have you ever wondered what undertaking cryo-fieldwork in a glacial environment typically involves? Well, what about undertaking cryo-fieldwork in a glacial environment during a global pandemic?! Read on to find out all about the challenges I faced on my recent trip to Iceland in July 2021… Fieldwork Preparation As this previous blog post highlights, undertaking cryo-fieldwork requires a significa ...[Read More]

Cryo-adventures – Behind the scenes of cryo-fieldwork

October 25, 2019
Cryo-adventures – Behind the scenes of cryo-fieldwork
Figure 1: On top of Svínafellsjökull glacier, Iceland 2018 [Credit: Saule Akhmetkaliyeva].

As the Arctic is warming faster than the global average, Arctic glaciers are rapidly melting. My research is about the fate of glacial organic carbon when the ice containing it melts. To investigate these processes, I travelled to several glaciers, an activity full of challenges… and rewards! My research Glacier ice covers about 11% of Earth’s land surface, and contains within it a globally ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – Icelandic glaciers monitored from space!

February 17, 2017
Image of the Week – Icelandic glaciers monitored from space!
Figure 1: Exceptionally cloud free view of Iceland taken from ESA Envisat on 21, July 2010. Rates of surface elevation change between 2010-2015 derived from ESA CryoSat-2 swath-processed elevations are overlaid over the six largest ice caps. The time series shows thinning below 1200 m elevation over Vatnajökull, the largest ice cap in Iceland and Europe (by volume) -see Foresta et al. (2016) [Credit: L. Foresta and Dr. N. Gourmelen, University of Edinburgh, School of GeoSciences]

Located in the North Atlantic Ocean, just south of the polar circle, Iceland is a highly fascinating land. Covered by some of the largest glaciers in Europe and hosting active volcanoes, geothermal sites and subglacial lakes, it is extremely dynamic in nature and ever changing. With this Image of the Week we will tell you a bit about the changing ice caps of Iceland and how we can monitor them fro ...[Read More]

Ice on fire at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition

July 6, 2016
Ice on fire at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition
In 2010 thick ash poured from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano after an explosive eruption. Find out more about why this happened at the Explosive Earth Exhibit at this weeks Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition. Photo Credit: Eyjólfur Magnússon

The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition (RSSSE) is a free public event 4-10th July 2016 in London. This is a yearly event that is made up of 22 exhibits, selected in a competitive process, featuring cutting edge science and research undertaken right now across the UK. The scientists will be on their stands ready to share discoveries, show you amazing technologies and with hands-on interactive ...[Read More]

Image of the Week — Glowing Ice

May 6, 2016
Image of the Week — Glowing Ice
Glowing ice -- winning picture of the EGU photo contest 2016. The image shows a block of ice on the shores of Jökulsárlón, Iceland. [credit: Katharine Cashman (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)]

Two weeks ago, the EGU General Assembly was coming to an end in Vienna. With over 16,500 participants, this year’s edition was bigger and more varied than ever (e.g check out this good overview of the science-policy short course, published 2 days ago on geolog). The week was particularly fruitful for the cryospheric sciences and to mark this we have cherry-picked one of the winning picture o ...[Read More]

Image Of The Week – Do My Ice Deceive Me?

April 1, 2016
Image Of The Week – Do My Ice Deceive Me?
F.I.B. in the ice, (credit: the person who took the shot would rather stay anonymous and not tell where the picture was taken sorry)

A few weeks ago, we focussed our image of the week on very particular parts of Antarctica, which display blue ice at the surface. Today we would like to put the spotlight on an even more extreme chromatic phenomenon : the Fyndið ísjaki Brandari (should be pronounced “/fɪːntɪð/ˈiːsjacɪ /ˈprantaːrɪ/“, even though a bit of phonetics never hurt anyone, for the sake of simplicity this phenomenon ...[Read More]