SAMS students in the Arctic 2018

Hello everyone, here is Francesca, Today I’m going to tell you everything about my very rainy quaternary and glacial geology field trip to Aldegondabreen glacier. First of all, If you think that glacial geology is going to be very cool and fun because you’ll get to go and explore a lot of glaciers you’re WRONG. Glacial geology in fact, has not to be confused with glaciology. In one you go on top of glaciers to do all the cool stuff, on the other one you go dig holes in mud where once there was a glacier. For everyone in my course this was definitely not a surprise as they’re all enrolled in geology degrees, apart from me, the only one for whom all this glacier thing was completely new.   After a few very basic lectures about glaciers and   stratigraphy our class left for a 6 days field trip to Aldegondabreen.   Compulsory photo in survival suits Once arrived to Barentsburg, a small Russian settlement on the opposite side of the fjord in which Alde...

Greetings humans and otherworldly inhabitants of planet Earth. The Physical Geography Group As some of you might know my humans and I are currently residing in the high north in Longyearbyen, experiencing the polar day, horrendously expensive grocery prices, meeting new people and of course exploring our surroundings. Mascha has already informed you of our survival training, so I decided I will share our first fieldtrip experience. The trip was to the local glaciers Scott Turnerbreen, Rieperbreen and Foxfonna to gain familiarity with the surrounding geology and glaciology. Now before I continue I would like to tell you something about the naming of geological features here in Svalbard. Our current home of Longyearbyen lies in Longyeardalen, with the Longyearelva running through it and the Longyearbreen glacier at its end …. do you see what I am getting at? What a genius idea makes everything so simple and nice. We started our fieldtrip at 10am at UNIS with all of our foo...