Cryospheric Sciences

Imaggeo on Mondays: Sneaking up from above

Jan Blöthe May 8, 2017

Sneaking up from above . Credit: Jan Blöthe (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Take some ice, mix in some rock, snow and maybe a little mud and the result is a rock glacier. Unlike ice glaciers (the ones we are most familiar with), rock glaciers have very little ice at the surface. Looking at today’s featured image, you’d be forgiven for thinking the Morenas Coloradas rock glacier wasn’t a glacier at all. But appearances can be misleading; as Jan Blöthe (a researcher at the ...[Read More]

April GeoRoundUp: the best of the Earth sciences from the 2017 General Assembly

Laura Roberts-Artal May 4, 2017

This diagram created by Cassini's mission planning team shows how navigators use Titan flybys to shape Cassini's orbits. Credit NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory - Caltech / Erick Sturm

This month’s GeoRoundUp is a slight deviation from the norm. Instead of drawing inspiration from popular stories on our social media channels and unique or quirky research featured in the news, we’ve rounded up some of the stories which came out of researcher presented at our General Assembly (which took place last week in Vienna). The traditional format for the column will return in May! Major st ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: An epic ‘house’ move across the ice

Helle Astrid Kjær May 1, 2017

Pulling ‘the dome’ from NEEM to EastGrip Greenland . Credit: Helle Astrid Kjær (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

In 2008 the NEEM Deep Ice Core Project was initiated by 14 partner countries in Northwestern Greenland (camp position 77.45°N 51.06°W) with the aim to drill from the very top of the Greenland ice cap to its base; obtaining ice from as far back as the last interglacial period- the Eemian – some 130,000 years old. At the start of the 2008 field season, the NEEM camp consisted of a single hea ...[Read More]

Geosciences Column: The dangers of an enigmatic glacier in the Karakoram

Laura Roberts-Artal April 5, 2017

Kyagar as seen from the observation station upstream of the glacier’s terminus during the surge. The dashed line indicates the ice dam height from 2012, highlighting the dramatic thickening at the glacier's snout. Credit: V.Round et al., 2017

Nestled among the high peaks of the Karakoram, in a difficult to reach region of China, lies Kyagar Glacier. It’s trident-like shape climbs from 4800 to 7000 meters above sea level and is made up of three upper glacier tributaries which converge to form an 8 km long glacier tongue. Until recently, it’s remoteness meant that studying its behaviour relied heavily on the acquisition of data by satel ...[Read More]