back through time -- a visit to the ice margin

Our team has grown yet smaller: Ross left this morning for Nuuk to make arrangements for our Greenlandic cultural studies. The four remaining members of our team hiked across three ridges and forded two rivers to get to the ice margin. The journey to the ice brought us back into spring -- above is the first Dryas integrifolia we have seen in bloom.


I can't control my excitement about the ice margin. Meredith and Laura collected rock samples from two Little Ice Age moraines, Xiahong got water samples, including from a waterfall on the glacier, and I collected plants that were growing on the LIA moraine (a 150-600 year old moraine).


View from the Little Ice Age moraine of the ice margin to the right and bedrock and a distant lake to the left.


Retreating ice margin -- 'dirty' ice at the bottom indicates retreat.


Laura, Meredith and Xiahong were all grins after our hike back from the ice margin (visible in the background).


Beautiful metamorphic rock (gneiss)

Laura shares her excitement with the glacial polish.