Department of Geography, Cambridge » Glaciology and Climate Change

Research into glaciers and ice sheets is based at the Scott Polar Research Institute, where staff use observational data, laboratory experiments and numerical models to understand the dimensions and flow of ice masses, and to assess the impact of climate change. Current research focuses on fast-flowing glaciers and ice streams, hydrological processes and pathways within ice sheets, mass- and energy-balance, and sedimentary records from glacier-influenced marine environments.

Research projects

Research projects currently being undertaken on this theme include:

	RESPONDER: Resolving subglacial properties, hydrological networks and dynamic evolution of ice flow on the Greenland Ice Sheet RESPONDER is an ERC-funded research project based at the University of Cambridge. It aims to develop an intergrated understanding of the evolution of ice flow on the Greenland ice sheet and the co-evolution of hydrological networks operating at its base. By employing multiple, complementary approaches, ranging from geophysical imaging techniques to direct exploration in kilometer-deep boreholes, the project is collecting an unparalleled stream of observational data from the basal environment which is rarely studied, yet responsible for making Greenland glaciers flow faster than glaciers anywhere else on Earth.
	SAFIRE: Subglacial Access and Fast Ice Research Experiment Outlet glaciers of the Greenland Ice Sheet cause significant sea level rise because they flow fast and are sensitive to climate change. The processes and mechanisms that govern fast flow are, however, not well understood. This project aims to resolve the control on the fast glacier motion by drilling to the bed of Store Gletscher in West Greenland.
	TIME: Thwaites Interdisciplinary Margin Evolution The largest Earth science funding agencies in the United Kingdom and the United States are collaborating to investigate one of the most unstable glaciers in Antarctica. The US National Science Foundation (NSF) and UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) are teaming up to study a rapidly changing glacier roughly the same size as Florida or Britain.
	Surface and Basal Hydrology of the Greenland Ice Sheet This project investigates the behaviour of surface lakes that form each summer on the Greenland Ice Sheet, the delivery of surface water to the bed, and the effects this has on basal water pressures and ice sheet velocities.
	Antarctic ice-shelf hydrology, instability and break-up This project is ultimately trying to answer the questions: Why did the Larsen B Ice Shelf catastrophically break up in 2002? And might other ice shelves meet the same fate? It involves a combination of numerical modelling supported by recent field measurements in Antarctica to investigate the role that surface melt water ponding may play in ice shelf flexure and fracture.
	Meteorology, debris cover and hydrology of Himalayan glaciers This project is concerned with obtaining a better understanding of how the steep, complex topography of the Himalaya affects small scale weather patterns, how this influences the distribution of snowfall and energy receipt across the glaciers of the region, and how this, together with the characteristics of glacier surface debris layers, controls patterns of water ponding and glacier shrinkage.
	iSTAR: NERC Ice-sheet stability programme Pine Island Glacier is one of five glaciers in West Antarctica that are currently contributing sea-level rise at a significant and accelerating rate. The aim of NERC’s ice sheet stability programme (iSTAR) is to understand the cause of sea level rise stemming from the rapid transfer of ice from ice-sheet to ocean.