European Geosciences Union
Division on Cryospheric Sciences
President: Olaf Eisen (cr@egu.eu)
Deputy President: Carleen Tijm-Reijmer
(c.h.tijm-reijmer@uu.nl)
The Cryosphere are those parts of the Earth and other planetary bodies that are subject to prolonged periods of temperatures below the freezing point of water. These include glaciers, frozen ground, sea ice, snow and ice. One of the main aims of the EGU Division on Cryospheric Sciences is to facilitate the exchange of information within the science community. It does so by organizing series of sessions at the annual EGU assembly, and through the publishing of the open-access journal `The Cryosphere’. The division awards the Julia and Johannes Weertman medal for outstanding contributions to the science of the cryosphere.
The 2020 Julia and Johannes Weertman Medal is awarded to Julienne C. Stroeve for her fundamental contributions to improved satellite observations of sea ice, better understanding of causes of sea ice variability and change, and her compelling communication to the wider public.
The 2020 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Anna E. Hogg for outstanding research in the field of satellite remote sensing of the cryosphere and her contributions to science communications.
The 2019 Louis Agassiz Medal is awarded to Andreas Kääb for innovative and multidisciplinary contributions to the field of remote sensing of the cryosphere, with applications in glacier mass balance, permafrost and geohazards.
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award is awarded to Bartosz Kurjanski Cool deltas – Sedimentary environments of the Salpausselka I and II moraine ridges near Lahti, Finland
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award is awarded to Gregory Church Detecting and characterising an englacial conduit network within a temperate Swiss glacier using active seismic and ground penetrating radar
The 2019 Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists is awarded to Marie Dumont for outstanding contributions to the field of snow sciences.
Plumbing is something we take for granted: the pipes that bring us water to wash and drink, and the pipes that take the waste water away again. We see the taps and basins in our kitchen and bathroom – but the pipes are hidden away under the floor or inside the walls – and we mostly ignore them until there’s a leak or a blockage! It turns out that glaciers have plumbing too – and like the pipes in our …
The illustration above shows a sketch of the evolution of Arctic sea ice for different levels of warming and the different months of the year, based on the simple extrapolation of observations. A new study, in which I was involved, uses the latest available global climate models and shows that the Arctic Ocean could become practically ice free at the end of the summer for the first time before 2050. This could happen even in a scenario where we drastically …
Did you know that glacier mice can be found at the surface of some glaciers? They’re not the tiny rodent you might be imagining, but actually little balls of moss, which appear to be full of mysteries still to be uncovered… What is a “glacier mouse”? On glaciers around the world, mostly at high-latitudes in the northern hemisphere, little balls of moss develop and move around the ice. Originally described as “jökla-mys” or “glacier mice” in the 1950s, as you …
You’ve just finished your PhD or postdoc… now what? Perhaps you’re thinking of a non-academic career, but don’t know where to start, or which skills you need? Up to 70% of scientists move into non-academic careers after graduation (The Royal Society, 2010). But finding useful information and advice is hard. In today’s blog, we summarise the EGU Webinar ‘Careers outside of academia’ which took place on June 24th 2020. A working group for careers, jobs and funding has been set …
Thursday 30 July marks the centennial of the birth of Marie Tharp, a pioneering geologist and cartographer whose groundbreaking scientific contributions played a key role in the eventual acceptance of the theory of plate tectonics. Tharp is best known for her detailed seafloor maps that revealed a wealth of previously unknown features, including seamounts, trenches, transform faults, and most notably, the mid-ocean ridge system.
Tharp’s story is all the more compelling due to the adversity she overcame during her career—much of it related to her gender. Because Tharp didn’t always receive credit for her work, her contributions were initially overlooked. Fortunately, Hali Felt, the author of Tharp’s biography, and others have helped correct the record. “Marie wouldn’t have chosen to experience the gender discrimination that told her the humanities were a “better fit” and forced her to work in an office rather than the field,” says Felt in a recent EGU blog, “but the result was that she found her calling closer to home, and mapped 70 percent of the Earth’s surface in the process.”
This month, EGU is celebrating Tharp’s achievements, and those of all women geoscientists, through a series of posts, including one by the Tectonics and Structural Geology Division that revisits her legacy and its importance for laying the foundations of modern geology. EGU also spoke with six researchers working in the fields of ocean science, tectonics, and mapping to ask them what Marie Tharp’s work means to them personally, as well as to the future of ocean science and tectonic research. “Her life story is a burning, guiding light for me,” says marine geographer Dawn Wright.
We hope these articles will inspire all EGU members to help one another overcome whatever adversity we face. Tharp “succeeded in building a career that she loved, and was proud of,” says structural geologist Lucia Perez Diaz. “As a woman in science, I can’t imagine a better dream to work towards.”