Glaciology Course

Last week I returned from Svalbard after taking a month long course in glaciology at the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS).  This course was designed to be a month long, intensive study of glaciology for students at the Masters or PhD level in the fields of physical geography or glacial geology.  The month long course was divided into 4 themes: glacier systems, mass balance and Svalbard glaciers, glacier dynamics, and glacier modeling.  Each theme was taught by an expert in that specific subfield.  The teaching staff consisted of Doug Benn, Jon-Ove Hagen, Tavi Murray, Nick Hulton, and Ian Rutt.  Overall this course provided a good overview to the current state of glaciology. 

In additional to lecture and seminar, this course also included four field excursions to various glaciers near UNIS on Svalbard.  The transportation method was on sleds towed by snow mobile, this makes for a cold and bumpy trip, or by bandwagon, a vehicle on tank treads that can move through deep snow.  The first glacier we visited was Drønbreen located in Adventdalen near UNIS.  This glacier is believed to have surged about fifty years ago.  We also briefly stopped at a pingo, an ice blister in the permafrost, on the way to the glacier.  The second week we made a more extensive field excursion to Bogerbreen.  Here we dug a snow pit and completed a snow sounding survey of the glacier so we would have some experience in the methods used for measuring winter accumulation when calculating mass balance.  The third excursion was a longer trip to Paulabreen, a surge type glacier which appears to have stopped its latest surge during the winter month.  The chaotic surge front that met the sea ice was an impressive site.  On the fourth trip we traveled over an ice field called Fimbulisen to see Tunabreen, which is a tidewater glacier or has a calving front in the fjord.  The fjord is frozen right now but the ice cliff at the terminus is still striking.  Several pictures are included from the excursions below.            

In addition to the coursework, this course also provided an excellent opportunity to get to know other people in the field and to go on trips near Longyearbyen in our free time.  In the long run, this social interaction was more valuable the academic work as I now have met a number of young scientists who are interested in glaciology and with whom I will likely interact in the future.           

I am not away from Svalbard for long this time as I return for a month long field season with the Norwegian Polar Institute next week. 

Enjoy the photos. 

Professor Benn explaining layering in a snow pit.

Snow sounding on Brogerbreen

Even snow mobiles get stuck.

Looking down on Longyearbyen.

The surge front of Paulabreen.

Me in front of the surge front of Paulabreen for scale.

Snow mobiling across an ice field.

The calving front of Tunabreen.