The amazing textures of glaciers
There is something incredible to feel the absolute power and emanating cold of a glacier. Even being a couple of hundred metres from the glacier face, you can feel the cold. You also get lost in the texture and lines and changes in the ice – smooth ice turns into huge jagged shards and then somehow folds into mini mountain ranges of solid ice before blocks and shards loom over the rocks and strip of sand at the front of the glacier.
But this strip of sand tells a whole other story of the glacier.
It shows a glacier in retreat. Drawing back from the sea, shortening, retreating up the mountain as its mass reduces. And Svalbard’s glaciers are melting at an alarming rate – nearly all of them have shrunk significantly in recent years. And the record-breaking summer heat in August hasn’t helped at all.
Being so close to these majestic glaciers fills you with awe, the knowledge they are dissappearing so rapidly fills you with a mix of immense sadness and anger.
To discover so much more about glaciers, follow @heidisevestre – she is incredible.