Under the calving front

A glaciology student from UNIS approaches the calving front of the Paulabreen glacier across sea ice in the Rindersbukta fjord. Calving grinds to a halt over winter as semi-detached blocks at the front are frozen into the sea ice, and starts up again in the spring. Paulabreen is a surge-type glacier, for which long quiescent phases of slow flow are interrupted by one or two year bursts of fast flow and advance. The glacier front advanced by 1.5km during a surge in 2005.