mountain glacier

The EverDrill project: shedding light on the interior of a Himalayan debris-covered glacier

Katie Miles December 3, 2021

Figure 1 – The upper ablation area of Khumbu Glacier, with clean ice (left centre of image) coming out of the Khumbu Icefall becoming debris-covered as it flows towards the terminus (flow is towards the bottom right of the image). Credit: the author.

We know that glaciers are actively responding to climate change, but what is happening on the inside? The conditions within a glacier strongly influence its behaviour, but the deep and dark depths of a glacier are difficult to access – we know very little about this remote environment. The EverDrill project (2016 – 2019), funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council, aimed to fill this kn ...[Read More]

Climate Change & Cryosphere – Caucasus Glaciers Receding

Levan Tielidze June 7, 2019

Fig. 1: Tviberi Glacier in 1884 (left) and 2011 (right) [Credit: Fig. 2d and 2e in Tielidze, 2016]

The Tviberi Glacier valley is located in the Svaneti Region – a historic province of the Georgian Caucasus. Between 1884 and 2011, climate change has led to a dramatic retreat of the ice in this valley. Other glaciers in the Greater Caucasus evolved in a similar way in past decades. We investigated glaciers and their changes both in-situ and with remote sensing techniques in the 53 river bas ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – Broccoli on Kilimanjaro!

Johanna Kerch March 16, 2018

Figure 1: “Broccoli” bubbles in ice from Kilimanjaro seen in a close-up Photograph. The bubbles look like they are about to explode in the ice. In between the “Broccoli” bubbles are bubbles that look like little disks or bowls, all flattened along the same plane within an volume which is around one ice grain. Ripples in the background originate from the band saw used to cut this ice. The ice slab is approx. 1 cm thick and microtome-polished on the surface [Credit: Johanna Kerch]

On the plateau of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, the remnants of a glacier can be found and the ice from that glacier contains a rather interesting feature – Broccoli! Not the vegetable, but bubbles that look a lot like it. Our Image of the Week shows some of these strange “Broccoli Bubbles”. Read on to find out more about where these were found and how we can see them. There is not much ice left on the m ...[Read More]