Swansea Glaciology Research Group

Swansea Glaciology Group is based in the Department of Geography, College of Science. Our research combines world-leading expertise in computer simulation, satellite remote sensing, and geophysical and geological field methods in the Arctic, Antarctic, and most glaciated regions to advance understanding of:

Ice dynamic processes such as iceberg calving and basal processes in relation to ice streams, outlet glaciers and glacier surging;
Interactions between ice sheets, solid earth, oceans and atmosphere;
Reconstruction of past and prediction of future glacier, permafrost, and snow behaviour and processes;
Past and future cryospheric contribution to sea-level rise;

We are particularly noted for advancing the understanding of ice shelf stability, iceberg calving, glacier surging, ice stream flow and solid earth interactions in Antarctica, Greenland, and Svalbard.

Affiliated Staff

Honorary chairs: Helen Fricker (Scripps Institute of Oceanography) http://scrippsscholars.ucsd.edu/hafricker , David Vaughan OBE (British Antarctic Survey)

Academic staff: Steph Cornford, John Hiemstra, Bernd Kulessa, Adrian Luckman, Tavi Murray

Postdoctoral staff: Suzanne Bevan, Glenn Jones, Jordan Mertes

Postgraduate students: Helen Hallang, Craig Hammock, Emily Hudson, Rebecca Schlegel, Astrid Zimmerman

Associated Research Projects

BEAMISH, the first project to drill through, instrument and retrieve sediments from beneath the 2.2km thick Rutford Ice Stream in Antarctica. The project is funded by NERC and involves investigators from Swansea, British Antarctic Survey, Penn State, Leeds and Bristol. BEAMISH Project student: Rebecca Schlegel @HotWaterOnIce

CALISMO (Calving Laws for Ice Sheet models) is a NERC-funded project led by St Andrews University that aims to radically improve the accuracy of sea-level rise predictions for the 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR6). The project will develop a rigorous, comprehensive theory of calving processes, critically tested against observations, and apply the knowledge gained from detailed models to develop the simple, reliable calving laws needed to predict ice sheet response to climate change. The Swansea Glaciology Group leads the observational part of this project.

Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) is a NERC Centre of Excellence that studies processes in the Earth’s polar latitudes that can affect the Earth’s albedo, polar atmosphere and ocean circulation, and global sea level. The project is funded by NERC and involves investigators from Swansea, Leeds, Reading, UCL, and Bristol

GHOST (Geophysical Habitat of Subglacial Thwaites, 2018-2024) is a US-UK-Germany collaborative project that is part of the joint NSF-NERC funded International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, and will identify whether basal conditions can facilitate rapid retreat of the Thwaites Glacier grounding line, expand its boundaries and deglaciate adjacent marine basins. The Swansea Glaciology Group will characterise the heat flow from the earth’s upper crust into the base of the glacier using magnetotelluric (MT) geophysical surveys. (https://www.swansea.ac.uk/geography/research-and-impact/ghost/;https://thwaitesglacier.org/projects/ghost).

IGIS (Impact of Deep Groundwater on Ice Stream Flow in West Antarctica, 2022-2025) is a NERC-funded project led by Swansea Glaciology Group that involves collaboration with the British Antarctic Survey, the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London. The project will identify the role that interactions between crustal groundwater and geothermal heat fluxes and the Institute Ice Stream and Bungenstock Ice Rise play in regulating the stability of the central Weddell Sea Sector of West Antarctica. The project combines computer simulations with in situ seismic and magnetotelluric geophysical surveys as well as satellite remote sensing (https://www.swansea.ac.uk/geography/research-and-impact/igis/).

‘Towards an Early Warning of Antarctic Ice Sheet Collapse from Seismology’ (2019-2021) is a collaborative project between the universities of Tasmania, Swansea and Colorado Boulder that is funded by the Australian Research Council. It will establish a physical basis for the sensitivity of seismic observations to small changes in ice-rock interface zone that may trigger major changes in ice sheet flow, with a focus on the large Aurora and Wilkes subglacial basins in East Antarctica (https://www.swansea.ac.uk/geography/research-and-impact/east-antarctica/).

Collaborative Partners and Research Centres

Alfred-Wegener Institute for Marine and Polar Research, Australian Antarctic Division, British Antarctic Survey, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Latest Research News

BEAMISH team, including Tavi Murray and Rebecca Schlegel from Swansea University, successfully drill 2km hole in Antarctic ice sheethttps://news.sky.com/story/scientists-use-hot-water-to-drill-record-2km-hole-in-antarctic-ice-sheet-11616081

Antarctica in virtual reality – stunning new film heralds Swansea-Australia research collaboration, including Sarah Thompson and Bernd Kulessa:https://www.swansea.ac.uk/press-office/latest-research/antarcticainvirtualrealitystunningnewfilmheraldsswansea-australiaresearchcollaboration.php

The one trillion tonne iceberg: Larsen C Ice Shelf rift finally breaks through, research by Adrian Luckman, https://www.swansea.ac.uk/press-office/news-archive/2017/theonetrilliontonneiceberglarsenciceshelfriftfinallybreaksthrough.php

Greenland ice flow likely to speed up, as sediment becomes more slippery, including Bernd Kulessa and Glenn Jones: https://www.swansea.ac.uk/press-office/latest-research/greenlandiceflowlikelytospeedupassedimentbecomesmoreslippery.php

In reverse order the BBC News stories which reported on our monitoring of the Larsen C rift and subsequent iceberg calving:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45421315

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-44745734

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-40321674

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-40113393

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39779761

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38686626

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38522954

Recent Publications

Bevan, S. L., Luckman, A. J., Kuipers Munneke, P., Hubbard, B., Kulessa, B., Ashmore, D. W., 2018. Decline in surface melt duration on Larsen C Ice Shelf revealed by the advanced scatterometer (ASCAT). Earth and Space Science 5 (10), 578-591. http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2018ea000421

Cook, A.J., Holland, P.R., Meredith, M.P., Murray, T., Luckman, A., Vaughan, D.G. Ocean forcing of glacier retreat in the western Antarctic Peninsula, Science, 353(6296), 283-286, 10.1126/science.aae0017, 2016.

Cornford, S.L., Martin, D.F., Payne, A.J., Ng, E.G., Le Brocq, A.M., Gladstone, R.M., Edwards, T.L., Shannon, S.R., Agosta, C., van den Broeke, M.R. and Hellmer, H.H., 2015. Century-scale simulations of the response of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to a warming climate. The Cryosphere, 9(3), pp.1579-1600. 10.5194/tc-9-1579-2015

Dyke, L.M., Andresen, C.S., Seidenkrantz, M.S., Hughes, A.L.C., Hiemstra, J.F., Murray, T., Bjørk, A.A., Sutherland, D.A., Vermassen, F., 2017. Minimal Holocene retreat of large tidewater glaciers in Køge Bugt, southeast Greenland. Scientific Reports 7(1), 12330 - 2045-2344 (ISSN), 10.1038/s41598-017-12018-x.

Hogan, K.A., Ó Cofaigh, C., Jennings, A.E., Dowdeswell, J.A., Hiemstra, J.F., 2016. Deglaciation of a major palaeo-ice stream in Disko Trough, West Greenland. Quaternary Science Reviews 147, 5-26.

Kulessa, B., Jansen, D., Luckman, A. J., King, E C., Sammonds, P. R., 2014. Marine ice regulates the future stability of a large Antarctic ice shelf. Nature Communications, 5(1), doi:10.1038/ncomms4707.

Kulessa, B. and 10 others (incl. Jones, G. A.) 2017. Seismic evidence for complex sedimentary control of Greenland Ice Sheet flow. Science Advances, 3(8), doi:10.1126/sciadv.1603071.

Luckman, A., Benn, D. I., Cottier, F., Bevan, S., Nilsen, F., Inall, M., 2015. Calving rates at tidewater glaciers vary strongly with ocean temperature. Nature Communications 6, 8566+. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9566

Martin, D.F., Cornford, S.L. and Payne, A.J., 2019. Millennial‐Scale Vulnerability of the Antarctic Ice Sheet to Regional Ice Shelf Collapse. Geophysical Research Letters, 46(3), pp.1467-1475. 10.1029/2018GL081229

Murray, T., Nettles, M., Selmes, N., Cathles, M., Burton, J., James, T.D., Edwards, S., Martin, I., O’Farrell, T., Aspey, R., Rutt, I. and Baugé, T., 2015. Reverse glacier motion during iceberg calving and the cause of glacier earthquakes, Science, 349(6245), 305-308, 10.1126/science.aab0460.

Facilities

Geophysical field instrumentation (including radar, active-source seismic and geoelectrical instrumentation)
High Performance Computing