GeoLog

Cryospheric Sciences

Imaggeo on Mondays: Getting a handle on Greenland’s glaciers

The picture below shows several small glaciers surrounding the Greenland ice sheet, in Tassilaq, near Kulusuk, East Greenland. The dark lines are glacial moraines, responsible for the transport of rock material from mountains towards sea. The photographer, Romain Schläppy, highlights that “an important scientific topic consists to place the recent and ongoing Greenland warming in the broader conte ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Mendenhall Glacier

Much of the Mendenhall River Basin is glaciated; indeed, the river flows out from under a glacier in the northern part of the valley and into a lake. This glacier, rather aptly, is known as Mendenhall Glacier, a 19 km long lake-calving monster in Alaska, USA. Meltwater from this glacier makes up the primary source of water for Mendenhall River, although several creeks also contribute to the flow, ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Vanishing Lakes and Dry Arctic Landscapes

The Koukdjuak Plains (south-west Baffin Island, Canada) form a vast postglacial marine plain that borders the Foxe Basin, an area that has been progressively uplifted due to glacio-isostatic rebound following the end of the last glaciation about 6600 years ago. The weight of glaciers on the Earth’s crust causes the ground to be depressed, which, once the glacier melts, bounces back (at a geologica ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Great Glacial Folds

Whether you’re climbing, hiking or caving, it’s hard to ignore the geology around you. For keen climber and environmental geoscientist Ivan Bour, a trip to the French Alps is no exception… I’ve practiced mountain climbing for a dozen years. During my ascents, I seek geomorphological and geological peculiarities. Very often, I associate my profession as a geologist with my activities in the high mo ...[Read More]