Glacier research, Valle Anzasca, Italian Alps - 2009
An expedition team from Aberystwyth University will travel to
the Italian Alps to assess glacier hazards in May 2009. The
group of researchers intends to investigate recent ‘surging’
behaviour and hazard development on the Belvedere Glacier, a
humid-temperate, heavily debris-covered glacier located in the
Valle Anzasca. Their studies will look into how glacier recession
and the subsequent development of glacier-related hazards have
both greatly accelerated the risk of glacial lake outburst floods
which have been widely reported in regions including the Karakoram
and Nepal Himalaya.
Team leader Matt Westoby emphasised the importance of the
research stating “studies of the dynamics and factors that
influence melting on debris-covered glaciers are rare, and so any
data gathered are invaluable since the contribution to global sea
level rise from the melting of these high-mountain ice masses is
deemed to be significant (due to their location, such glaciers
will experience some of the most pronounced warming and subsequent
recession in the face of future climate change) and currently
overlooked by the majority of global climate change models.”
The project has been part-funded with a grant of £1,000 from
the Royal Geographical Society’s Jeremy Willson Award, funded by
the JWCT.
The data gathered during the expedition will form the basis of
two Masters theses (for Matt and team member Alex Neen) and a
complementary project for fellow team member John Balfour, who has
recently been accepted to read for an MSc Quaternary Science at
Royal Holloway. The team departs for Macugnaga in June 2009. Matt
added that he would like to “thank the Jeremy Willson
Charitable Trust and the Willson family for [their] generous
support towards our fieldwork activities.”
April 2010
"Here are the seminars given by
myself
[Matt Westoby] and
Alex. Also attached is the
departmental newsletter piece."
December
2009
Matt
Westoby, expedition team member, sent the following message:
“Please find attached the M.Sc. theses for
Matthew
Westoby and
Alex
Neen. These reports form the two major research outputs from the [Belvedere
Glacier expedition]. In addition to the production of these theses, seminars
have been given by individual members of the research team within the
Institute of Geography
and Earth Sciences,
Aberystwyth University.
A short piece in the departmental quarterly newsletter about our summer
expedition will also be published within the month. The research by John
Balfour is ongoing. We would like to once again take this opportunity
to thank the RGS-IBG and the trustees of the Jeremy Willson Charitable
Trust for their kind support.”
August 2009
“I attempted to contact the
[JWCT] a month or two ago to express our sincere gratitude for the funding
that was kindly allocated to support our fieldwork on Belvedere Glacier
in the Italian Alps. The team has since returned following a successful
fieldwork campaign and is now knuckling down to process the data and
get Masters dissertations and reports written! I have attached our
preliminary
report which has been submitted to the RGS, along with a photograph
of John and Alex setting up the weather station on the glacier.”
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