Exciting 🤩 new insights into subglacial hydrology of Grímsvötn jökulhlaups (2021/22, Iceland).
💧 Subglacial Floods switch between channel & sheet flow; water ponding along paths drives major ice dynamics and velocity including lifting of ice, altering 3D motion.
Amazing work 🇮🇸 #glaciology #glofs
This is figure 1 from “Broadly stable atmospheric CO2 and CH4 levels over the past 3 million years.” It shows characteristics of the greenhouse gas data from the ALHIC1901 ice core.
Key climate shifts in the past 3 million years may have been more heavily influenced by changing ocean temperatures than greenhouse gases, according to analyses of ancient Antarctic ice cores published in two Nature papers.
go.nature.com/41cCdBT
go.nature.com/3Pkaa0M
🧪 🌊
Ferdinand Glacier
2008 | 2023
Sobering repeat photos of its very sad (and rapid) demise! 🧊🔥
Svalbard last decade glacier retreat is otherworldly! 📈
📷 Jakub Małecki
Via @hazlovell.bsky.social
Fantastic radar images 📸and compelling story about radar revealed debris trains 1km up in Northern Greenland ice which seems to be proof of dramatic shrinkage in last interglacial (~120kya), surge-like regrowth lifting basal till and weakening ice in ways models miss.
#Glaciology #GlacierDynamics
New roundup vid, ft.: quicker-than-expected climate heating, higher-than-estimated sea levels and sooner-than-expected tipping thresholds for Antarctic ice.
Oh, and the Greens won Gorton and Denton. FINALLY, SOME GOOD NEWS.
youtu.be/DzXyi6purZY
Within a glacier drainage channel features invite to play. Creating music with ice on ice.
Enjoy
Who doesn’t love seeing a supraglacial channel in winter? The ice shapes are amazing — frozen flows, bright blues, and patterns that show how glaciers move and melt. Nature at its coolest. #Glacier #Science #Glaciology
Exceptional snow accumulation in Svalbard this season, combined with unusually mild temperatures, highlights the shift from a cold–dry to a warm–wet Arctic climate regime. Deep loose snow (>1 m) is extremely difficult for snowmobile travel, especially with heavy sleds. #ClimateChange #ArcticResearch
Looped moraines, also called surge or loop moraines, typically form on surging glaciers due to differential ice flow rates, where faster-flowing ice from a tributary or side arm transfers into the slower-moving main glacier body, looping surface debris into teardrop or oval patterns.
We also have these features termed "cirular ablation moraines" (till) that is found on top of (old/ancient?) blockfields. Does anyone know of similar features elsewhere?
After a long, hard day, the cabin finally appears.
Fire catches, the room slowly wakes with warmth.
The body and mind ease, silence settles - a simple meal, nothing fancy.
Then outside, the sky unfolds in magic light,
and suddenly, every frozen hour feels worth it.
✨
#svalbard #fieldwork #glaciers
Long, freezing days in the Arctic
gear acting up, crevasse checks, quick calls in the cold. Fieldwork takes days of prep and recovery
Lately, I’ve met quite a few colleagues who don’t see much value in it. What does it say about our times that we prefer models over direct measurements?
#glaciology
Join me at the @igsoc.bsky.social Global Seminar ❄️ on Feb 18 (20:00 UTC). I'll be talking about basal sliding laws, flow laws, and how their non-dimensionalization simplifies #Glacier and #IceSheet #Modelling. 📉🧊
👉 Details: www.igsoc.org/event/igs-gl...
👉 Paper: doi.org/10.1017/jog....
In recognition of International Day of Women and Girls in Science (Feb 11), it's a great time to re-share this paper from 2010 - lots of progress and lots more room to grow. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Exciting news - abstract submissions are NOW OPEN for both the AI in Glaciology (June) & Radioglaciology (September) Symposia later this year!! (2nd circular coming soon for the International Symposium on Interactions of Ice Sheets and Glaciers with the Ocean, too!)
New paper out in #TheCryosphere about #Antarctic perennial #firn aquifers in the 21st century.
By using a #XGBoost #emulator we use a ensemble of 12, with different scenarios, RCMs and GCMs.
tc.copernicus.org/articles/19/...
Congrats 🥳
Meltwater lingered too long in the firn
fell in love with staying,
Refroze itself into ice.
When new meltwater comes,
there’s no room left to rest
runoff guaranteed,
the glacier lost it’s lovely buffer.
Observations from an accumulation area at 700m.asl in Svalbard.
#climatechange #glaciology #firn
A blue/green pool of water with a white, icy mountain glacier behind and snow-capped rocks in the background. Text on the image reads "Geographer Dr Caroline Clason has co-authored a UNESCO report on the effect of melting ice on people and planet."
We’re a leading centre for research into glaciers and ice sheets. Recently @carolineclason.bsky.social @geogdurham.bsky.social @durhamglaciology.bsky.social co-authored a major report for the UK National Commission for @unesco.org on the effect of melting ice on people and planet 👉 bit.ly/4r51PMl
New Paper Alert | Georgia Tech researchers developed a mathematical formula to predict the size of lakes that form on melting ice sheets. They discovered that lake depth and span are linked to the topography of the ice sheet. Their findings were published in @natcomms.nature.com.
Will be taking some personal time to process scientists not really knowing why ice is slippery. Please respect my privacy unless see me sprawled out on an icy sidewalk yelling, "No one knows why this happened to me!"
www.quantamagazine.org/why-is-ice-s...
Really interesting new paper showing ice "sliding mechanically destroys the ordered crystal lattice of ice, creating an amorphous layer that thickens as the sliding goes on". Maybe this explains some things related to subtemperate sliding?
Tbt Video out with some of the students doing a summer mass balance survey - or should we call it glacier surface water survey💦? So much water at the glacier surface when redrilling the mass balance stakes… 🙀
#Glaciology #Svalbard #Glaciermelt #Hydrology #ClimateChange #Arctic
New research in #Geology was cited in Daily Mail, highlighting the importance of subglacial geology for predicting sea-level rise. Seismic data reveal that the Greenland ice sheet rests on sediments that make glaciers more mobile and may accelerate ice loss.
Read the paper: geosociety.co/Yang_et_al
First Fieldwork 2026 in the books. Little snow so far this year in Svalbard and surprisingly little crusts at the glacier - snow interface suggesting a prompt switch from melt to accumulation this year without gradual cold + warm spells which would create these high density surface crusts. #GPR
TBT Fieldwork, Spring 2025
Arrived at a distant hut — first open the hut, fire and snow clearing. Slowly, warmth returns after a day in minus 20.
Svalbard fieldwork blends presence of harshness, long hours with awe. Even with a busy mind, the beauty is hard to be unnoticed.
All is reflection.
Every action ripples back.
The choices we make —
their shine hides a shadow.
Consumerism glitters,
but the cost
is buried deep in soil and sea.
One day we will be surprised —
surprised because we did not see
the reflections,
the causes,
the links
woven through everything.
Great work 🤗👏
🚨 Introducing the Mass Balance Machine (MBM): a #data-driven glacier MB model using topographic + climate features 🏔️ 👉 "Machine learning improves seasonal mass balance prediction for unmonitored glaciers” (Sjursen et al., 2025) doi.org/10.5194/tc-1...
@vaw-glaciology.bsky.social
#Refreezing
#SurfaceRunoff
❄️👉💧
Current measurements and models often overestimate how much meltwater from Greenland’s ice sheet enters the ocean because they miss key retention processes.
Much meltwater refreezes in porous ice or ponds, cutting actual runoff by 9–15% compared to older estimates.
