ISSN 0019–1043 Ice News Bulletin of the International Glaciological Society Number 160 3rd Issue 2012 Contents 2 From the Editor 17 Seligman Crystal Award 2012 4 Recent work 21 Nordic Branch Meeting 2012 4 Japan (Honshu) 24 Meetings of other societies 4 Alpine glaciers 24 ISMASS Workshop, Portland, Oregon, 4 Polar glaciology USA, July 2012 5 Blowing and drifting snow 26 WGMS Workshop, Tarfala, Sweden, July 6 Snow avalanches 2012 7 Snow and ice physics 29 News 8 International Glaciological Society 29 Obituary: Mark F. Meier, 1925–2012 8 Journal of Glaciology 33 First Circular: International Symposium 9 Annals of Glaciology 53(61) on Contribution of Glaciaers and Ice 9 Book received Sheets to Sea Level, Chamonix, France, 10 Annals of Glaciology 54(62) May 2014 11 Annals of Glaciology 54(63) 37 Glaciological diary 12 Annals of Glaciology 54(64) 41 New members 13 British Branch Meeting 2012 Cover picture: A ~5 cm section of firn and melt from an ice core (photo by Peter Neff/US National Ice Core Laboratory) Scanning electron micrograph of the ice crystal used in headings by kind permission of William P. Wergin, Agricultural Research Service, US Department of Agriculture EXCLUSION CLAUSE. While care is taken to provide accurate accounts and information in this Newsletter, neither the editor nor the International Glaciological Society undertakes any liability for omissions or errors. 1 From the Editor Dear IGS member Although this is the last ICE of 2012, I accepted are being assigned to the third am writing this in February 2013. We issue. The first issue is complete on the are a little late in producing it. I would web and it won’t be long until the second like to report that the final count of IGS one will start appearing on the web too. members in 2012 culminated at 958. So things are moving smoothly. And at the time of writing this we have The Journal impact factor for 2012 743 members paid up for 2013. We are was 2.301, slightly down from last year confident we will break the 1000 mark (2.6). But the Journal is consistently in the this year. But we need your help – please top 100 (out of more than 16 200 titles) get your friends and colleagues to renew/ for the number of full text downloads at join. The membership rate is the same Ingenta: 2353 downloads in November as 2012. So let’s all make 2013 an even and 1135 downloads in December 2012. better year for the IGS. I would also like to tell you that we To sum up 2012, we published 1252 are fully compliant now with CLOCKSS pages of the Journal of Glaciology. This is (Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff a record number of pages in the Journal in Safe) and LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep any year. We received 185 submissions, Stuff Safe). This will ensure that all IGS down slightly on the previous year publications will be preserved whatever (198). But we cannot expect to break the happens. Should any server where you now submission record for the seventh year access IGS publications go down for any running. In any case, according to our reason you will always be able to access Chief Editor, the quality of the submissions them through one of these two systems. is improving, i.e. administrative rejections And we have also joined EBSCOhost, right off the bat (i.e. prior to assigning a which apparently is popular with students. Scientific Editor and thus sending out to This brings me to the hot topic of review) are going down. the day. We are looking into the various Right now, the first two issues of the aspects of ‘Open Access’ (OA). The IGS Journal are full – all papers now being staff attended a workshop in London, 2 organized by ALPSP (the Association loss of revenue for the IGS of Learned and Professional Society – Loss of library subscriptions – Publishers) earlier this month. It was most we do, however, trust that our interesting and good to get the feeling members would remain loyal of what other societies are thinking. I – We do not have any other means will try and summarize briefly what we of subsidizing our publications found out. – Possible loss of quality (through There are in fact three ‘models’ of economizing on production) OA, Green, Gold and Hybrid. Copyright will be difficult to manage (i.e. anyone can use any material, • Green Open Access – this is where pictures or figures for any purpose) we effectively are at the moment. We would need to compensate Authors can: for the loss of income, possibly – Archive the final, post-print version implementing what is referred to as 6 months after its appearance an ‘Author Processing Charge’ or APC online on the IGS website. In (this includes the production cost effect, this means papers are (page charges) and cost of publishing) locked for 1–5 months. Typically the industry standard is 12–24 • Hybrid Open Access – issues would months include a combination of Green OA – Publisher source and copyright and Gold OA papers must be acknowledged – Individual authors pay to have their – Post pre-review versions of articles papers ‘Gold OA’ (typical cost in the at personal/institutional websites, industry $3000 per paper) provided that the publisher and – We might possibly retain some review/acceptance status are subscriptions indicated clearly We retain subscriptions – in other To finish off this editorial I would like words, it has a minimal effect on our to quote Louise again and say ‘The IGS business model membership reached record levels in 2012. It’s now time to break that record!’ • Gold Open Access – everything is open Your IGS membership for 2013 is now to all readers right away. This is the ideal available for renewal at http://www. world, BUT there is a potential serious igsoc.org/membership/renew.html Magnús Már Magnússon Secretary General 3 Recent work Japan (Honshu) ALPINE GLACIERS surface albedo and is likely to affect total ablation of the glacier. The dominance of cyanobacteria Identifying active glaciers in Mt Tateyama and Mt may be due to abundant deposition of desert Tsurugi in the northern Japanese Alps sand, which changes the chemical conditions of So far, Japanese glaciologists and geographers meltwater to be favourable to cyanobacteria. have believed that there are no active glaciers Nozomu Takeuchi (Chiba University, ntakeuch@ in Japan. The research group of Tateyama faculty.chiba-u.jp) Caldera Sabo Museum studied the surface flow velocity and ice thickness of the Gozenzawa Changes in Himalayan glaciers perennial snowpatch (length: 700 m; surface In order to provide ground-based evidence with area: 0.1 km2; altitude: 2500–2800 m a.s.l.) in Mt respect to ‘Himalayan Glaciergate’, which was Tateyama (36°34.5’N,137°37’E; 3015 m a.s.l.), inadequate information about changes occurring the Sannomado perennial snowpatch (length: to Himalayan glaciers, we conducted surveys on 1600 m; surface area: 0.13 km2; altitude: 1700– three benchmark glaciers in the Nepal Himalaya 2400 m a.s.l.) and the Komado perennial snowpatch using carrier-phase differential global positioning (length: 1200 m; surface area: 0.17 km2; altitude: system from 2008 to 2010. Surveyed surface 2000–2300 m a.s.l.) in Mt Tsurugi (36°37.5’N, elevation was compared with that surveyed in the 137°37’E; 2999 m a.s.l.) in the northern Japanese late 1990s and allowed us to extend the mass- Alps, Japan, since 2009. The Sannomado and balance records for the recent decade. Results the Komado perennial snowpatches have large showed the mass-balance trend comparable ice masses (larger than 30 m thick and about to the average worldwide. Using an energy- 1000 m long). The research group measured the mass-balance model with gridded reanalysis surface flow velocity and found that both the ice climate data, which were calibrated with in masses had flowed over 30 cm per month in the situ meteorological data near the glaciers, we autumn of 2011. Hence, both the snowpatches depicted fates of the benchmark glaciers with are confirmed as active glaciers. The Gozenzawa equilibrium line altitude (ELA). One in arid west perennial snowpatch also has a large ice mass Nepal will survive whereas the others in humid (27 m thickness and 400 m long), and it had east Nepal are doomed to disappear over time. flowed slightly less( than 10 cm per month) in the Furthermore, calculated ELA trend suggested autumns of 2010 and 2011. Thus, this snowpatch that the behaviour of the Asian glaciers should was also regarded as an active glacier. be spatially heterogeneous, caused not only Kotaro FUKUI (Tateyama Caldera Sabo Museum, by heterogeneous climate trend (combinations [email protected]) among warming/cooling and drying/wetting) but also by different response of glacier mass balance Biological investigation on the Urumqi Glacier due to climate regimes. No. 1, western China Koji Fujita (Nagoya University, [email protected]) Studies on cryoconite, microbes, and their effect on surface albedo have been carried out on the Urumqi Glacier No. 1, in western China, by a POLAR GLACIOLOGY group from Chiba University, Japan, since 2006. GRENE Arctic Climate Change Research Project The project is in collaboration with the Tien The changes occurring in the Arctic are both Shan Glaciological Station, Chinese Academy of substantial and rapid, and the different parts of Science. The Urumqi Glacier No.1 is one of the the Arctic climate system are involved. It has long well-known glaciers of long-term mass-balance been argued that the Arctic is the precursor of monitoring, but it is also a very interesting glacier our changing planet.