Glacial retreat at Gold Harbour, South Georgia: discovering unforeseen geology, remembering unexpected guests
Back in the early 1970s it was my good fortune to work on South Georgia for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). I spent three austral summers deciphering the geology of the north-east coast from Barff Peninsula down to Cooper Bay, and for the 1971-72 season, with support from Eric Lawther as GA1, my...
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:525903 2023-05-15T13:41:44+02:00 Glacial retreat at Gold Harbour, South Georgia: discovering unforeseen geology, remembering unexpected guests Stone, Phil 2019 text http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/525903/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/525903/1/Gold%20Harbour%204%20text%2Bfigs.pdf http://www.falklandislandsjournal.org/ en eng https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/525903/1/Gold%20Harbour%204%20text%2Bfigs.pdf Stone, Phil. 2019 Glacial retreat at Gold Harbour, South Georgia: discovering unforeseen geology, remembering unexpected guests. Falkland Islands Journal, 11 (3). 40-56. Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2019 ftnerc 2023-02-04T19:49:39Z Back in the early 1970s it was my good fortune to work on South Georgia for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). I spent three austral summers deciphering the geology of the north-east coast from Barff Peninsula down to Cooper Bay, and for the 1971-72 season, with support from Eric Lawther as GA1, my area of interest spanned from St Andrews Bay to Gold Harbour (Figure 1). Since then, the island’s glaciers have retreated rapidly as a well-established result of global climate change, with those flowing out towards the north-east coast the most dramatically affected (e.g. Cook et al. 2010). Many parts of the coastline now have a very different appearance from that which I remember, none more so than Gold Harbour where, in 1972, the Bertrab Glacier had tumbled over a spectacular ice fall and extended to the sea (Figure 2). Today, the lower part of the glacier has vanished, the ice fall has gone, and only the top section of the glacier remains. In most respects these changes are to be regretted, but from the geological perspective there are some benefits. Large areas of clean, ice-smoothed rock are now exposed that were previously concealed, revealing a substantial section of folded strata on the south side of what was the Bertrab Glacier ice fall – more on that later, after some reminiscences and historical scene-setting. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Bertrab Glacier British Antarctic Survey Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive Antarctic Austral Gold Harbour ENVELOPE(-35.931,-35.931,-54.625,-54.625) Bertrab ENVELOPE(-34.533,-34.533,-77.917,-77.917) Cooper Bay ENVELOPE(-35.813,-35.813,-54.783,-54.783) Barff Peninsula ENVELOPE(-36.314,-36.314,-54.313,-54.313) Bertrab Glacier ENVELOPE(-35.960,-35.960,-54.623,-54.623) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftnerc |
language |
English |
description |
Back in the early 1970s it was my good fortune to work on South Georgia for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). I spent three austral summers deciphering the geology of the north-east coast from Barff Peninsula down to Cooper Bay, and for the 1971-72 season, with support from Eric Lawther as GA1, my area of interest spanned from St Andrews Bay to Gold Harbour (Figure 1). Since then, the island’s glaciers have retreated rapidly as a well-established result of global climate change, with those flowing out towards the north-east coast the most dramatically affected (e.g. Cook et al. 2010). Many parts of the coastline now have a very different appearance from that which I remember, none more so than Gold Harbour where, in 1972, the Bertrab Glacier had tumbled over a spectacular ice fall and extended to the sea (Figure 2). Today, the lower part of the glacier has vanished, the ice fall has gone, and only the top section of the glacier remains. In most respects these changes are to be regretted, but from the geological perspective there are some benefits. Large areas of clean, ice-smoothed rock are now exposed that were previously concealed, revealing a substantial section of folded strata on the south side of what was the Bertrab Glacier ice fall – more on that later, after some reminiscences and historical scene-setting. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Stone, Phil |
spellingShingle |
Stone, Phil Glacial retreat at Gold Harbour, South Georgia: discovering unforeseen geology, remembering unexpected guests |
author_facet |
Stone, Phil |
author_sort |
Stone, Phil |
title |
Glacial retreat at Gold Harbour, South Georgia: discovering unforeseen geology, remembering unexpected guests |
title_short |
Glacial retreat at Gold Harbour, South Georgia: discovering unforeseen geology, remembering unexpected guests |
title_full |
Glacial retreat at Gold Harbour, South Georgia: discovering unforeseen geology, remembering unexpected guests |
title_fullStr |
Glacial retreat at Gold Harbour, South Georgia: discovering unforeseen geology, remembering unexpected guests |
title_full_unstemmed |
Glacial retreat at Gold Harbour, South Georgia: discovering unforeseen geology, remembering unexpected guests |
title_sort |
glacial retreat at gold harbour, south georgia: discovering unforeseen geology, remembering unexpected guests |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/525903/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/525903/1/Gold%20Harbour%204%20text%2Bfigs.pdf http://www.falklandislandsjournal.org/ |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-35.931,-35.931,-54.625,-54.625) ENVELOPE(-34.533,-34.533,-77.917,-77.917) ENVELOPE(-35.813,-35.813,-54.783,-54.783) ENVELOPE(-36.314,-36.314,-54.313,-54.313) ENVELOPE(-35.960,-35.960,-54.623,-54.623) |
geographic |
Antarctic Austral Gold Harbour Bertrab Cooper Bay Barff Peninsula Bertrab Glacier |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Austral Gold Harbour Bertrab Cooper Bay Barff Peninsula Bertrab Glacier |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Bertrab Glacier British Antarctic Survey |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Bertrab Glacier British Antarctic Survey |
op_relation |
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/525903/1/Gold%20Harbour%204%20text%2Bfigs.pdf Stone, Phil. 2019 Glacial retreat at Gold Harbour, South Georgia: discovering unforeseen geology, remembering unexpected guests. Falkland Islands Journal, 11 (3). 40-56. |
_version_ |
1766156233816932352 |