The Expedition Team: Top row (left to right) Emily Potter, Rebecca Burley, Hannah Davies
Bottom row (left to right) James Linighan, Jack Oxtoby, Kirstie Murphy
Welcome to our Svalbard Expedition blog! We are a team of second year undergraduate geographers lucky enough to be carrying out an expedition to Svalbard, a remote Arctic archipelago at 78° North, in July and August 2016. We plan to undertake field research into the effects of climate change on glaciers in Svalbard, which will form the basis of our individual third year dissertations. We will be based at the University centre in Svalbard (UNIS), the world's northernmost institution for higher education and research, located in Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen, Svalbard. From this base we will undertake daily fieldwork on three land-terminating glaciers, Longyearbreen, Larsbreen and Platabreen, located within walking distance from the town. James and Jack will also undertake fieldwork at Tuanbreen, a marine-terminating glacier located 40 km North East of Longyearbyen.
We would like to thank our funding providers, Newcastle University Expeditions Committee, The Royal Geographical Society, The Gino Watkins Memorial Fund and The Andrew Croft Memorial Fund for making this expedition possible alongside Dr Rachel Carr (Newcastle University), Professor Andy Russell (Newcastle University) and Associate Professor Chris Borstad (UNIS) for their continued support and advice.