We're mid-way through 2.5 weeks of work at three adjacent ocean-terminating outlets of
the Greenland Ice Sheet and our project is off to a great start.
I'm presently working with researchers from the Univ of Texas at Austin and the Univ of
Kansas to try and understand why three adjacent glaciers on the northern west coast of
Greenland have behaved so differently over the last decade. I'm leading the seismic
component of our project- other team members are heading up the deployment of GPS
receivers, weather stations, and the collection of a broad suite of oceanographic
measurements. Our work is based out of Uummannak, a beautiful town with very friendly
people at the foot of a jagged mountain. The water offshore is full of enormous
icebergs and the far walls of the fjords consist of 4000' cliffs. The town and its
surroundings are an amazing place to work.
Our hard work and the early
efforts by the lead scientists who got this work funded will really pay off next year
when we recover the data that will be collected for us between now and then. In the
mean time, my hard work will continue in Alaska when I return in mid-August to continue
my research on Yahtse Glacier and complete my Ph.D.
