Ice Of The Earth - Introduction To Glaciology

Timetable

Module aim (aims)

Climate change has been severely impacting global ice cover over the past decades, causing its sharp decline, both on lands and oceans. This change poses a risk for billions of people worldwide, so understanding of the processes and their consequences is of utmost importance in order to prevent collapse of the global cryosphere.

The course is dedicated to all students from different faculties interested in how does the climate change influences ice on Earth, how does ice influence climate, what is the life cycle of a glacier and why and how does it move. Precisely, the course aims to present the most basic problems of glaciology: the role of glaciers in the Earth system, their interactions with climate, oceans and lithosphere, principal mass balance terms and basic concepts of glacier motion.

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

Only basic background in geography is recommended.

Syllabus

[Week 1] Introduction and course content;
[Week 2] What controls global temperature?;
[Week 3-4] Mass balance of glaciers;
[Week 5] Hydrology and temperature of glaciers;
[Week 6] Glacier motion and hazards;
[Week 7] Glaciers and climate;
[Week 8-9] Ice and oceans;

Reading list

Suggested textbook: Benn & Evans: Glaciers and Glaciation (2011 or earlier) - in case of no availability use any relevant textbook