Hi Mike...

Just home from a family vacation and catching up on journals and pictures. (I can't wait to see any video you get of iceberg calving...if you can get some!)

I was wondering if any of the researchers on your trip have been able to notice significant changes in the glacier front over the years that they have been coming to Svalbard? Are the glaciers retreating measurably here like they are in most other places around the world?

In your recent pictures, I can't tell from the pictures, are those large boulders on the icebergs or just muddy ice?

Say Hi to Julie B-G for me... tell her that I have been watching the satellite imagery and there have been lots of clouds, but it looks like the ice melt/break-up on Lake E was more than 50% on 20 July and it was all gone by the first clear day 28 July.

Tim

Mike Rhinard

Hey Tim!
YES! There is measurable change.
Here are some numbers, from "the distinguished professor" Ross Powell: (That's what the students here like to call him.)
The Kronebreen Glacier (I'll get a map up soon.) is flowing at ~1m/day. It is receding at a rate of ~100m/yrWhich means it's total recession is ~465m/yr !!!! (Yes, there is some surface melting, but that is negligible to the calving.)
We see it calving off every day. At that rate, we can almost see it flowing.
Thanks for asking.
PS: Your Lake E cores have made it to Germany!