PR - In April UNIS glaciologist Monica Sund discovered crevasses in the Comfortlessbreen. This can be the beginning of a surge, and Sund will now monitor the changes in the glacier to obtain more knowledge of the surge dynamics that we still know very little about.

It was on a private snow scooter trip in late April that Ph.D. student Monica Sund discovered crevasses in the Comfortlessbreen, a glacier in Engelskbukta, just south of Ny-Ålesund (see map below).

– I saw crevasses that I hadn’t seen on that glacier earlier and after conferring with local people in Ny-Ålesund my guess was confirmed; the glacier is on the move, Sund says.

In late May Sund was flying over the Comfortlessbreen with helicopter.

The scientist could observe marginal crevasses more or less along the whole glacier in addition to transversal crevasses in the upper part and a small advance in the front, which has started to push some of the sediments in front of it.

 

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