AG-342 The Marine Cryosphere and its Cenozoic History (10 ECTS)

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Course requirements

Enrolment in a master programme in Earth sciences. Fundamentals of geology especially within sedimentology, corresponding to AG-209, AG-210 or AG-211, or equivalent.

Academic content

The term marine cryosphere is used to collectively describe frozen water within the marine portion of the Earth’s surface. This incorporates marine based ice sheets including ice shelves and ice streams, icebergs, sea ice, and subsea permafrost.

The marine cryosphere has played a key role during several time periods of the Earth’s geological history and is a critical component in studies of climate change. In this course, the students will learn about the evolution of the marine cryosphere during the Cenozoic when the Earth experienced a long term palaeoclimatic change from the warm greenhouse to the colder icehouse world. Through the lectures, fieldwork, lab exercises and individual project work, the students will be introduced to the marine cryosphere and its components. Specific emphasis is placed on describing and discussing available methods to study the geological history of the marine cryosphere.

The course embraces the marine environment from shallow shelves to the deep ocean. Arctic and Antarctic analogies and differences with respect to the Cenozoic history of the marine cryosphere will be discussed.

The main topics of the course are:

• General physical characteristics of the marine cryosphere: marine based ice sheets, icebergs, sea ice and subsea permafrost
• Dynamics of marine based ice sheets and sea ice
• Marine glaciogenic landforms: mapping and interpretation
• Sea ice and glacial sediment proxies: from biomarkers to ice rafted debris
• Past and present drift patterns of sea ice and icebergs: implications for interpretation of palaeo-proxies
• The Cenozoic history of the marine cryosphere
• Ice sheet modelling: limitations and possibilities to simulate the marine components
• The cryosphere’s interaction with the marine environment and climate

Geological/geophysical data, providing information on the spatial extent and dynamics of the Svalbard-Barents ice sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum, are compared with ice sheet modelling results in the laboratory computer exercises. This will give the students a direct insight into the present limitations and possibilities to simulate the key components of marine based ice sheets; ice streams and ice shelves.

Learning activities

The course extends over ca 5 weeks including compulsory safety training, and is run in combination with AG-842 The Marine Cryosphere and its Cenozoic History (10 ECTS).

Prior to the course, as a pre-course assignment, the students are asked to prepare a short talk about their master projects specifying its relevance to the content of the course and present it in a seminar at the beginning of the course.

Through the lectures, fieldwork, lab exercises and individual project work, the students will be introduced to the marine cryosphere and its components. Specific emphasis is placed on describing and discussing available methods to study the geological history of the marine cryosphere.

The course includes 2-5 days fieldwork based on the sea ice in front of one of Svalbard’s tidewater glaciers. The fieldwork will give students first-hand experience of geophysical, geological and oceanographic data collection and sampling procedures.

In a seminar towards the end of the course the students will present the results of their course projects in a 10–15 min. oral presentation to the class for discussion.

Compulsory learning activities

All compulsory learning activities must be approved in order to sit the exam.

• Fieldwork/cruise
• Two seminars
• Two oral presentations (one at each seminar)

Assessment

Method	Duration	Percentage of final grade
Written exam	4 hours	100%

Student life