Robert Lloyd - a Sir Gar Blog of random news . . . and some Clecs!

Welsh scientists are working on a project to understand the processes that lead to ice mass acceleration. The glaciologists will be drilling holes up to 1km deep into the Greenland Ice Sheet. The Greenland Ice Sheet is losing ice mass at an increasing pace which at present is around 200 cubic km per year, enough to raise global sea levels by 0.6 mm per year and according to the latest International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, most likely to render sea levels higher by 50cm within our century. This is a worrying prospect given the recent flood and storm damage in the UK. Research shows that in some places, the world's glaciers are melting up to 100 times faster than any time during the last 350 years, which will have significant implications for the future. Academics at Aberystwyth University have been awarded £340,000 to research into the processes that drive the fast flow of these glaciers because a growing body of evidence points to a strong response to both oceanog...

The moment of birth of an iceberg has been analysed in detail for the first time. Dr Alun Hubbard from Aberystwyth University’s Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences and researchers from the University of St Andrews have completed a detailed and thorough survey of the interface between a large marine-terminating glacier and the ocean. Using a technique called side-scanning-sonar operated from their research vessel Gambo during July 2012, Dr Hubbard and his team from Aberystwyth University mapped changes in the ice-front of Store Glacier on the West Coast of Greenland. This glacier is an outlet for the Greenland ice sheet. Working with Alun Hubbard was Dr Richard Bates from the University of St Andrews who had developed new techniques of data processing that allowed him to compare the ice front before and after a massive iceberg calving event. This enabled him to visualise those changes in detail and make estimates of ice loss from the glacier front over a two-week period. This in...

Aberystwyth University glaciologist, Dr Alun Hubbard, is set to appear on the final edition of the BBC’s highly acclaimed series Frozen Planet which will be broadcast on BBC One on Wednesday 7 December at 9pm. The final edition sees series presenter David Attenborough meet up with Dr Hubbard on the Greenland ice-shelf as he journeys to both Poles to investigate what rising temperatures will mean for the people and wildlife that live there and for the rest of the planet. Dr Hubbard, a researcher at the University’s Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, worked closely with the Frozen Planet production team on all aspects of the Greenland shoots. During peak filming in July and August last year, Dr Hubbard and his research team from Aberystwyth and Swansea Universities hosted seven of the BBC Natural History crew for two weeks, as well as numerous journalists from Sky News, the New York Times and the Daily Mail at his Melt Lake Camp in the interior of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Dr Hu...