Glaciers, sandpits and studying in Norway!

In May 2015 I participated in a physical geography fieldcourse run by the University of Bergen (UiB) in Norway as part of their undergraduate degree program. Focusing on glacial geomorphology, the fieldcourse offered me an excellent opportunity to collect data for my third year honours (dissertation) project and to develop many skills that I had been learning at Bangor, such as geomorphological mapping, GIS and remote sensing.

Matt at the snout of Nigardsbreen.
My dissertation supervision, Dr. Lynda Yorke, guest lectures on this fieldcourse so was able to secure me a place and also put me in contact with Anna-Kathrine, a UiB masters student who had studied in Bangor as an ERASMUS exchange student. Anna-Kathrine generously offered to show me around Bergen the weekend before the fieldcourse, which happened to be the weekend of the Norwegian Constitution Day. I had a fantastic few days exploring the city, watching the Nasjonaldagen parade and enthusiastically celebrating with the very friendly and humorous Norwegians.

The fieldcourse began with a scenic drive through central Norway, the destination: Jostedal National Park. The geography we saw was textbook, so despite feeling particularly fragile after the weekends festivities, the views kept me wide awake as we wove our way over, under and around the magnificent mountains and fjords, stopping multiple times along the way to appreciate some of the landforms that had been created by the movement of ancient glaciers. Jostedal National Park contains the largest continental glacier in Europe and it was my intention to determine how Nigardsbreen, one of its outlet glaciers, had fluctuated over the past ~500 years.

Nigardsbreen.
Led by the greatly entertaining Professors Svein Olaf Dahl and Ranveig Skoglund, the week involved data collecting in the field from 09:30 to 17:00 each day, then data processing and project report writing from 19:00 til late. I teamed up with two Norgwegian students, Mads and Marte, and we examined the area in front of Nigardsbreen glacier, which offers many clues about how it has moved in the past. These clues mostly come in the in the form of glacial geomorphological landforms such as moraines, eskers, erratics and paleochannels. Limited by unusually high snow cover, we were able to create a geomorphological map of these features in the eastern proglacial area and to determine a chronology of the landforms we identified. From this data, an assessment of the direction and rate of historic glacier movements with relation to changes in climate could be made.

The final day of the fieldcourse was spent learning about the various group projects that had been undertaken over the course of the week, covering topics ranging from snow and avalanche dynamics to fluvial geohazards and glacial geomorphology. These topics greatly complemented those which I had been studying at Bangor. After the group presentations, it was time for the infamous sandpit race, a fiercely competitive sprint up a near-vertical slope of loose sand and gravel which has become something of an annual tradition on the fieldcourse. With a Kinder egg to play for, we gave our all and with my lungs burning, vision blurring and close to passing out, I collapsed over the top of the slope happily victorious yet utterly spent. Our exhaustion was quickly forgotten as we then proceeded to hike across a recently avalanched mountain slope to reach the glacier snout, the culmination of a week of intense work and a moment I had been anticipating for months.

Matt explaining his groups field work findings.

Upon our return to Bergen, I stayed in a charming apartment 20 minutes walk away from the geography department whilst I completed various bits of work. I had been given four days to finish the 8000 word project report and a week after that to prepare for an oral exam. I spent a further week in Bergen after the exam, exploring the many coffee shops and surrounding mountains with friends from Bangor and staying with Mads, who showed me an excellent night in the UiB students union bar inside a cave underneath the city.

Matt with the Norwegian students at the end of the fieldcourse.
My time in Norway has been the best experience of my undergraduate and was also greatly beneficial to my academic development because it gave me extra experience in data collection and analysis, improved my overall confidence and skill in working under pressure. After completing the course I was pleased to be invited to apply for an MSc in Earth Science at UiB, something I hope to do after graduating from Bangor.

Matt Jenkin

Third year student in BSc. (hons) Geography.

Publication date: 1 February 2016