Cryosphere

GeoTalk: Meet Marie Cavitte, policy officer for the Cryosphere Division, member of the EGU Climate Hazards Task Force, former Blue Book trainee

Damla Posta February 17, 2026

Welcome, Marie! Could you please introduce yourself to our readers? Hi, my name is Marie Cavitte. I’m a glaciologist and climatologist with a passion for the polar regions. I spent 10 years studying Antarctica. I started off during my Masters, then PhD, looking at the oldest ice on Earth, hunting for THE region of the ice sheet that might contain million-year-old ice. An ice core has been drilled ...[Read More]

A 12-meter sediment core reveals secrets of the Arctic’s past climate

Emeric Marie A. Babut du Marès January 24, 2025

Extracted from a depth of 2,500 meters, a giant 12-meter long marine sediment core from the Fram Strait, between Svalbard and Greenland, preserves a climate record spanning up to 400,000 years. Its sediment layers offer crucial insights into the Arctic’s past, helping Dr Jochen Knies and his research team answer two important question: Was the Arctic ever ice-free during past warm periods? W ...[Read More]

GeoTalk: Meet Ann-Sofie Zinck, researcher of Antarctic ice shelves and Cryosphere ECS Representative!

Simon Clark August 11, 2023

Hi Ann-Sofie. Thank you for joining this GeoTalk! To break the ice, could you tell us a bit about yourself and what got you interested in the Antarctic? Hi Simon, thanks for inviting me! That’s easy! As a child I always used to be ice cold… No, just kidding! I guess I have always been fascinated about nature, geoscience, weather, climate, and ice (creams). I preferred atlases, weather, and g ...[Read More]

GeoTalk: meet Francesco Avanzi, researcher in meltwater security!

Simon Clark December 15, 2022

Hi Francesco. Thanks for agreeing to this interview! To break the ice, could you tell our readers a bit about yourself and your research? Hey Simon! I’m an Italian hydrologist and earned a PhD at Politecnico di Milano with a dissertation on how snowmelt contributes to seasonal runoff. I then did a postdoc at UC Berkeley, California, where I collaborated with a major US hydropower company to improv ...[Read More]

Meet Jenny Turton, incoming Union-level Representative!

Simon Clark May 13, 2022

Hello Jenny. Thanks for agreeing to this interview! To break the ice, could you tell us a bit about yourself and your career? Hello! ‘Break the ice’ is a relevant saying for me, as I started being involved with EGU through the Cryosphere division. I am originally from Birmingham in the UK, and moved to Lancaster for my undergraduate and masters degrees in physical geography and earth s ...[Read More]

Imaggeo On Monday: the EGU Photo Competition – capture a moment in time.

Hazel Gibson April 4, 2022

In 2010 EGU held our first annual Photo Competition at the General Assembly in Vienna. Since then hundreds of photos have been shared on imaggeo by geoscientists and researchers just like you, with a lucky few being selected each year to be highlighted during the meeting and voted on by our members. These images can be of anything to do with geology or geoscience – we get many beautif ...[Read More]

GeoTalk: Meet Larissa van der Laan, glaciologist and science-artist!

Simon Clark December 15, 2021

Hi Larissa, thankyou for spending time with us today! To break the ice, could you tell us a little about yourself and your research? Ha, I see what you did there. I’m Larissa, she/her, 29, and a PhD candidate at the Institute of Hydrology and Water Resources Management in Hannover, Germany. I’ve been fascinated by snow and ice since I was little, writing my first ever school report and ...[Read More]

Artist in Residence – Kaleidoscopic ice

Andy Emery April 30, 2021

This one was a challenge to write, and a challenge to get my head around, but I was challenged to write it, so challenge accepted and challenge fulfilled! Kaleidoscope of ice Frozen water, mineral ice, a simple structure, orientation concise. A fabric is woven from many crystals intertwined, axes interlocked. C-axes, crystalline kaleidoscopes of greys, blues and whites, reflecting, refracting and ...[Read More]

Artist in Residence – Atmospheric rivers

Andy Emery April 29, 2021

With a name like “atmospheric rivers” this subject is an absolute gift to the poetically-inclined! Atmospheric rivers I float high in the sky, higher than the jagged, ice-hewn nunatak peaks I see below me as I peer over the side of my coracle made of clouds. Down there, beneath frayed candifloss, Greenland glows white in bright polar sunlight. My coracle bobs and sways as I go with the ...[Read More]

Why is research in Antarctica so important?

Hazel Gibson December 1, 2020

On the 1st December 1959 the Antarctic Treaty was signed by 12 nations, setting aside nearly 10% of the Earth “forever to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes… in the interests of all mankind.” In the years that followed more and more countries signed the agreement, until today when the agreement has been signed by 54 countries around the globe. In 2010, the Foundation for ...[Read More]