{"id":3385,"date":"2022-07-06T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-06T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arctrain.de\/?p=3385"},"modified":"2022-07-06T16:17:34","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T14:17:34","slug":"glacial-conference-including-glacial-experiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arctrain.de\/glacial-conference-including-glacial-experiences\/","title":{"rendered":"Glacial conference including glacial experiences"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The International Glaciological Society (IGS)<\/a> organizes symposia (or conferences) on different aspects of cryospheric sciences all around the world. In June 2022, the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau hosted the \u201cInternational Symposium on Maritime Glaciers\u201d. As I am working on numerically modeling marine-terminating\/tidewater glaciers, this was a nice fit for my research. That is because in the maritime region of Alaska there are quite a few tidewater glaciers present, which are actively studied. Moreover, close to Juneau in the area of the Glacier Bay National Park, drastic changes of tidewater glaciers have been recorded; first in the oral history of indigenous people and later by scientists. Most of the National Park\u2019s area was covered by thick ice during the Little Ice Age until only around 250 years ago. Nowadays (like the name indicates) this area is a bay which is home to an abundance of marine animals. Although some tidewater glaciers in Alaska were still advancing until recently due to their intrinsic dynamics (the so-called tidewater glacier cycle), nearly all of those have now succumbed to the influence of anthropogenic climate change and are thinning and retreating. Part of the conference was an excursion to the National Park and I am very glad I was able to attend this, because it makes you aware of the rapid environmental changes that occurred even recently (on geological time scales). One got the impression that really the only constant in life is change. A nice bonus was to see whales and sea otters on our boat ride to the area. Another impressive sight I had never before in my life were the icebergs floating around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n