2013
November
2014
June
1st meeting. Glen Clova (Scotland)
Date: 12-15th November. Venue: Glen Clova Hotel, Glen Clova (Perthshire, Scotland).
Located on the south-easternmost part of the Cairngorms National Park, Glen Clova is a characteristic glacial valley 33 miles away from Dundee and 68 from Aberdeen. In spite of its accessibility and proximity to cities, it has remained widely untouched and wild, so very little settlements are located here.
The Hotel is an ideal base for a wide variety of outdoor activities in Scotland, including Walking, Climbing, Game Shooting & Stalking. Beyond the Glen Clova Hotel the glen closes in more. The highest points above the glen are Driesh (947m) on the west and The Goet on Ben Tirran (896m) on the east. The hotel itself is at an altitude of about 220m (700ft). On the northern slope beautiful corries have developed, some of them hosting small tarns like Loch Wharral or Loch Brady. These lakes are closed by Younger Dryas moraines, which can also be found 6 miles west into the valley, at Corrie of Fee.
The main objectives for the meeting were:
- Knowing all the members and their scientific background.
- Organize which are the inputs that each member can provide.
- General logistics and project infrastructure information (finance, forthcoming meetings, website management, database preparation, scripts available for members use).
- Possible project extension.
- Discussion about geographic coverage of the project.
- Discussion about glacial reconstruction methodology.
- Discussion about geochronological data homogenization.
- Work distribution before the next meeting.
And the main conclusions and action items to be taken were:
- Website – revisit the acronym and once we get control of it.
- Set up Share Point space.
- Set up the Access database and make a first draft of the metadata sheets and circulate to all for comment and amendment.
- Complete the access metadata sheets for glaciers that researchers have worked.
- Get the Python scripting and automation package for glacier reconstruction up and running and out to all for testing
- Allocate the geographical regions of responsibility to the palaeo-glaciologists.
- The spatial coverage goes from Svalbard to the Atlas and from Ireland to the Urals.
- First look at the AAR range using new global dataset obtained from the WGMS.
- Distribution of the 12 parameters for "cosmo" recalculations to all palaeoglaciologists
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2ndmeeting. Bergen and Rosendal(Norway)
Date: June 4th to 6th 2014. Venue: Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bergen and Rosendal Turisthotell.
Second meeting was celebrated on the Western Norway region of Hordaland. First day members caught up with the most recent investigations about glaciers, climate and Younger Dryas that are being held in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bergen. Next day researchers moved to Rosendal, down the Folgefonna icefield, one of the most extensive glaciers in continental Europe. Further discussions and a visit to the glacier were held here.
Oral presentations at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bergen:
- Brice Rea: Younger Dryas across Europe.
- Craig Frew: Automating the implementation of an equilibrium profile model for glacier reconstruction and Equilibrium Line Altitude calculation in a GIS environment.
- Anna Hughes: DATED.
- Anne Bjune: Late Glacial temperature reconstructions in Scandinavia.
- Trond Dokken: The Atlantic and Nordic Seas circulation during late Glacial period.
- The Younger Dryas glacial re-advance in Western Norway.
- Hella Wittmeier: Late Glacial culmination in Arctic Norway.
- Camille Li: Atmospheric jet transitions and abrupt events during the deglaciation.
- Sven Lukas: Younger Dryas in Scotland.
- Phillip Hughes: Extent, timing and palaeoclimatic significance of Late Pleistocene glaciations in the High Atlas, Morocco.
The main points of discussion for the meeting were:
- Update on progress and current state of play.
- Automatic palaeoglacier reconstruction and ELA calculation tools.
- From palaeoELAs to palaeoclimate, how are we going to treat ELA shifts? Organize which are the inputs that each member can provide.
- The database and dealing with problem cases e.g. which moraine to choose, what date to select. What about debris cover, snow blow, avalanching?Possible project extension.
- Approaches on geochronology: how to combine 14C, cosmo and OSL?
- Uncertainties about dates. Problems on cosmo dating.
And the main conclusions and future actions are:
- Website – Change the overall view of the website.
- Organise logistics (excluding travel) for next meeting, including Doodle Pool for dates, and invitations to outside speakers.
- Change Access database to meet suggested amendments.
- Populate Access database for member’s allocated geographical region/s.
- Finalise automation package for glacier reconstruction and circulate.
- Generate dating quality control criteria list and circulate for email discussion.
- Queries on quality control, please contact Aberdeen group.
- Finalise ELA manuscript and circulate.
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