The Tasman Glacier Terminal Lake, seen in this photograph, lies in the Aoraki Mount Cook National Park in New Zealand’s south island. The photographer, Martina Ulvrova, stated she “finally got to see the largest glacier in New Zealand after several days of heavy rain, during which the landscape was bathing in mist”. The Tasman Glacier is 23 km long and is surrounded by a terminal proglacial lake w ...[Read More]
The Greenland ice sheet is undergoing rapid change, and nowhere more so than at its margins, where large outlet glaciers reach sea level. Because these glaciers are fed by very large reservoirs of ice, they don’t just flow to the coast, but can extend many kilometres out into the ocean. Here, the ice – being lighter than water – will float, but remain connected to the ice on the mainland. This phe ...[Read More]
This picture is taken from the Robberg Peninsula, one of the most beautiful places, and definitely one of my favorite places in South Africa. The Peninsula forms the Robberg Nature Reserve and is situated close to the Plettenberg Bay on the picturesque Garden Route. “Rob” in Dutch means “seal”, so the name of the Peninsula is translated as “the seal mountain”. T ...[Read More]
Drawing inspiration from popular stories on our social media channels, as well as unique and quirky research news, this monthly column aims to bring you the best of the Earth and planetary sciences from around the web. Major stories The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has confirmed that 2017 is among the three warmest years on record. The three years with the highest temperature on record ...[Read More]
The photograph shows the interaction of the first snow and an active lava flow during the 2014 / 2015 Holuhraun eruption in Iceland. The first snow fell onto a ground covered by fine black ash on 26 September 2014. While the meter thick lava flow advanced a few meters per day, it neither melted the snow nor flowed on top of it. Instead, it pushed a layer of centimetre-thick snow and millimetre-thi ...[Read More]
Scientific uncertainty is one of the only things in science that is certain. It’s found in complex modelling systems, in the unpredictability of natural processes and even when there seems to be scientific consensus, a new scientific discovery can recreate ambiguity. But how do policymakers deal with scientific uncertainty when they are making decisions? Policymakers deal with and use scientific u ...[Read More]
This picture shows the decreasing Moon on May 6, 2015, two days after the full Moon, as viewed from Hamburg, Germany. There are still 96.4% of the lunar front illuminated. The Moon does not glow on its own, but its surface reflects the sunlight. The Sun always illuminates a complete half of our natural satellite, which, in its orbit around our planet, always turns its face (which we see at full Mo ...[Read More]
A view of the southern edge of the Ladebakte mountain in the Sarek national park in north Sweden. At this place the rivers Rahpajaka and Sarvesjaka meet to form the biggest river of the Sarek national park, the Rahpaädno. The rivers are fed by glaciers and carry a lot of rock material which lead to a distinct sedimentation and a fascinating river delta for which the Sarek park laying west of the K ...[Read More]
The thick packs of ice that pepper high peak of the world’s mountains and stretch far across the poles make an unusual time capsule. As it forms, air bubbles are trapped in the ice, allowing scientists to peer into the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere long ago. Today’s Geosciences Column is brought to you by PhD researcher Ruth Amey, who writes about recently published resea ...[Read More]
Imaggeo, our open access image repository, is packed with beautiful images showcasing the best of the Earth, space and planetary sciences. Throughout the year we use the photographs submitted to the repository to illustrate our social media and blog posts. For the past few years we’ve celebrated the end of the year by rounding-up some of the best Imaggeo images. But it’s no easy task to pick which ...[Read More]