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

An Aberystwyth University glaciologist will be heading out to Antarctica on Saturday 7 January as part of an international study into the effects of climate change. Professor Neil Glasser will be joining scientists from Sweden, the USA and Norway for a seven week mission to the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Supported by the Swedish Polar Secretariat, the team will be collecting scientific data in Dronning Maud Land to reconstruct the long-term history of how the ice sheet in the area has thinned. Professor Glasser will be collecting rock samples to bring back to the UK for Cosmogenic Nuclide Surface Exposure Dating – also known as CN Dating. “CN Dating is a brand-new dating method we are developing that allows us to measure the amount of time the rock has been exposed at the surface – therefore providing an age estimate for when the ice thinned”, said Professor Glasser. The rocks will be collected from nunataks in the region, rocky mountains several hundred metres high that stick u...

Researchers at Aberystwyth University are leading a major study into the threats to society and infrastructure posed by receding glaciers in Chile. Professor Neil Glasser from the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at Aberystwyth University and colleagues at Exeter University and Chile have been awarded £370,000 to work on a research project that will investigate the causes and effects of these glacial hazards. The two year study is funded by NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) and the Chilean Government’s CONICYT (Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica). The dangers posed by flash floods from melting glaciers are well documented. In Peru alone, outburst floods from glacial sources caused an estimated 32,000 deaths in the 20th century, as well as destroying vital economic infrastructure, settlements and valuable arable land. In the Nepal Himalaya, it has been estimated that the costs associated with the destruction of a mature single hydropower in...

An Antarctic glacier has been named after Aberystwyth University glaciologist. Glasser Glacier has been named after Professor Neil Glasser, from the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at Aberystwyth University, and Director of the University’s Institute of Geography, History, Politics and Psychology. Measuring around 1500 metres long and 500 metres wide, Glasser Glacier is located on James Ross Island and flows westward from a large ice dome on Lachman Crags. This is the second Antarctic geological feature to be named after an Aberystwyth academic. Hambrey Cliffs, also on James Ross Island, have been named after Professor Mike Hambrey, former director of the Centre of Glaciology at Aberystwyth and Polar Medal winner. The naming of the glacier has been made by the Antarctic Place-Names Committee, “in recognition of his [Professor Glasser’s] significant research on Ulu Peninsula, James Ross Island and wider contributions to Antarctic and polar science”. The new name will be a...

Glaciers in northern Antarctic Peninsula melting faster than ever - despite increased snowfall. Increased snowfall will not prevent the continued melting of glaciers in the northern Antarctic Peninsula, according to new research published today (Sunday 14 September) in the journal Nature Climate Change. An international team of researchers, which includes Professor Neil Glasser from Aberystwyth University, has discovered that small glaciers that end on land around the Antarctic Peninsula are highly vulnerable to slight changes in air temperature and may be at risk of disappearing within 200 years. Temperatures are currently rising rapidly in the Antarctic Peninsula. Because warmer air holds more moisture, the amount of snowfall has also increased. Some researchers have suggested that this may offset the melting of the glaciers in the future. However, this study found that even small increases in air temperature increased melting so much that even large amounts of extra snowfall ...