Cryospheric Sciences

Image of the week: The Song of Sastrugi

Emma Pearce June 14, 2024

Wavy ice feature in front of wide blue sky.

Sastrugi on the Brunt Ice Shelf, Antarctica (Credit Emma Pearce).

Sastrugi are significant features in glaciology, providing valuable insights into wind patterns, snow dynamics, and surface processes. So although at first sight they may be easy to walk over (quite literally), their patterns and features can tell us more than you might think, so next time take a moment to look and see the story they have to tell… The Song of Sastrugi The wind’s icy b ...[Read More]

Wake up every one – permafrost microbes feasting – greenhouse gases go

Loeka Jongejans November 25, 2022

I really like to combine science and art. This puts science in a larger perspective and can help understand it in different ways. And perhaps more importantly, it evokes emotion. I wrote haikus and created stencils for every chapter of my PhD thesis. I created these artworks to illustrate the dimensions of the permafrost region and the consequences of global warming on permafrost. Let me show you ...[Read More]

You left us too early: a eulogy to permafrost

Loeka Jongejans March 4, 2022

Cotton grass grows in wet landscapes in many tundra landscapes. Photo credit: Loeka Jongejans

Most problems faced in research are complex and require creativity and critical thinking. Thus, we need to be creative in science! Or maybe, science itself is creative and there is no such thing as non-creative science. Anyhow, in today’s world, where TED-talks, science slams and elevator pitches, not to mention tweets, are ubiquitous, it is important that scientific expression takes on a form tha ...[Read More]

Cryo-Comm – Degrading Terrains

Sam Illingworth October 11, 2019

Outside the Murtèl-Corvatsch monitoring site used in this study [Credit: Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost ]

Beneath dusted peaks of mountain dew A dense and rigid backcloth skulks, Worn down and compacted with Fractured decades of aged powder; Trodden into rocky outcrops To lie barrenly against This frozen, ancient soil. Subtle shifts of these forgotten rocks Ripple across subterranean sediments, Dislodging once-stable foundations That now cascade like an ocean; Echoing across the fragile firmame ...[Read More]