With all of our research completed and the team safely back home in England, it’s time for us to reflect on the last few weeks of our expedition and update you all on what we got up to!
As our flights home crept ever closer, we were all eager to get as much research done as possible. Each day we hiked onto Longyearbreen glacier to collect the ablation and meltwater data, as well using the DGPS to map the meltwater channels, the ablation stakes and the moraine and debris deposits surrounding Longyearbreen glacier.
Our daily hike onto Longyearbreen was made even more exciting by Newcastle University providing us with the University Snapchat for a day. After attempting to pick a day of glorious weather we ended up having to work with very low mist and fog, providing some great if a bit creepy shots of our main field study site, Longyearbreen glacier. This opportunity allowed us to give many of our fellow students a glimpse into what we were experiencing, and with 2000 people watching many of the posts lots of people were clearly interested!
Later on that week we took the opportunity to explore more around Longyearbyen. Three of the team climbed up Sukkertoppen, a popular hiking route next to Longyearbyen. The views from the top were worth the tough scramble over loose shale near the top, allowing us to further along the valley of Adventdalen.
Over the whole trip as a team we made it onto 4 different glaciers in Svalbard; Longyearbreen, Larsbreen, Tunabreen and Scott Turnerbreen. In our previous blog we spoke about the research we hoped to carry out at Scott Turnerbreen, and we are pleased to announce on the 11th of August we made it onto that glacier! A total of 13 hours was spent in the field that day, making that the longest day of fieldwork, but both Jack and Hannah, with the help of James, collected the data they needed. Jack’s project included trekking to the back of Scott Turnerbreen, a unique glacier which has two separate accumulation zones. We took DGPS points which will be compared to a dataset from 1996 forming a key part of Jack’s project. Once we had negotiated the mud and meltwater channels to get on and off Scott Turnerbreen, including crossing a freezing meltwater channel, in bare feet, we collected data for Hannah’s project too. The data for her project involved mapping and taking weathering samples from the moraine system around Rieperbreen, a smaller glacier near Scott Turnerbreen.
A final trip to Tunabreen was also carried out alongside Chris Borstad, with James mapping the location of moulins on the glacier. A succesful 3D model was created of of a unidentified drainage feature on the glacier which will be further studied.
All of our data collection was completed on the 14th of August, giving us time to return all of the equipment we borrowed from UNIS and most importantly say a massive thankyou to all of the staff who supported us. Each and every one of the UNIS staff members were helpful, friendly and most importantly made us feel welcome and part of the University. Also a special mention must be given to the Associate Professor Chris Borstad, who without his advice and support not only would we have never made it to Svalbard, but our research would have been impossible to complete.
We all hope that one day we will be able to return to Svalbard, whether that’s in the winter, as a tourist or as a student or researcher at UNIS. But for now it’s back to England and Newcastle University, where the process of data analysis and writing our dissertations begins!