Monstrous Surging Glaciers
Dr Richard Grant, a Founder Member of the ARG, has been revisiting the early expedition reports and recent satellite imagery in preparation for the next expedition in planning, returning to Rindersbukta, Svalbard in 2027. This post includes a slideshow of satellite images which shows the monstrous surging glaciers in Rindersbukta since 2016.
Richard writes "My first visit to Svalbard was in 1990, part of a 6 week expedition to the Rindersbukta area, a fjord that feeds into Van Mijenfjord. My work was primarily on the development and implementation of a successful automatic monitoring system for measuring movement of glaciers in surge, in this case the focus was a 70m high front of ice rolling like a wave down the Bakaninbreen which terminates into Rindersbukta". The project, Continuous Automatic Monitoring of Mountain and Reticulated Glaciers or CAMMARG, was an innovation to use computer controlled survey instruments, housed within an insulated, purpose designed, cabinet fitted with optically corrected, argon filled, triple glazed windows, through which the observations were made. On the surging glacier, optical reflectors on poles were 'found' by the survey instrument 'searching' for the reflection and recording the observed strongest reflections positions. Those observations were recorded by the computer and could be transmitted by satellite connection for evaluation back in the UK. The system had a wind vane generator power supply maintaining charge in a battery powering the instruments.
Richard noted that the image of the CAMMARG station is a scan of a transparency slide taken with his 'infallible Pentax MX SLR camera'.
Richard continues, "We returned in 1991 and 1993 to further advance the project which was taken forward with significant funding from the European Union and enabled additional development of this novel technique. Since then, there have been amazing changes to the glacier system in the area, almost certainly climate driven".
Below is the slideshow of 11 images Richard has obtained from the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem Browser, showing a time-history of satellite images of the area since 2016 (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [2016-2026])..
Richard comments "From the satellite images the incredible surge of the main glaciers in the system, especially since 2020, is very clear. Thirty six years ago we had maps that show surveys of the glacier fronts in Rindersbukta between 1920 and 1990.
There was considerable retreat of the glacier margins over that period followed by, from the satellite images, massive surges pushing the glaciers dramatically back into Rindersbukta. When considered in the context of recent and much reported major and tragic glacier collapses in Switzerland (2025), Alaska (2025), Nepal-Tibet border (2026), amongst others, this is very worrying.
In 2027 we plan to return to the same area to carry out further environmental / scientific research. I am extremely excited about the expedition next year, to revisit an area I once knew very well, but I expect the changes in the relatively short period since the 1990’s may be quite shocking".
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