A film documentary following a team of Swansea University glaciologists on adventurous field research to investigate how and why Greenland’s ice is changing will receive its première next week.
The 50-minute documentary, called ‘A GLIMPSE of Greenland: The Disappearing Ice’, will be screened at 3pm on Tuesday, November 22, at the Taliesin Arts Centre, followed by a question-and-answer session.
To reserve free tickets to attend the screening, contact the Taliesin Arts Centre Box Office on 01792 602060, or email: [email protected].
The film shows the triumphs and frustrations, the beauty and the hardships as the team travelled and worked in a world of glaciers and icebergs, during their 2010 and 2011 field campaigns in south-east Greenland.
Among the film’s highlights are dramatic time-lapse footage of a huge iceberg calving event, a wild storm amongst the icebergs, a close encounter with a polar bear, and the stunning landscapes, mountains and glaciers of Greenland’s remote fjords.
The film has been entirely shot, edited, and produced by Swansea Glaciology Group researchers, in collaboration with Cardiff-based 196 Productions. PhD student Laurence Dyke was trained to lead the film production.
The fieldwork in Greenland forms part of the Leverhulme Trust-funded Greenland Ice Margin Prediction, Stability and Evolution (GLIMPSE) project, headed by Professor Tavi Murray of the University’s College of Science.
Professor Murray said: “As a scientist my lab is out there among the mountains, fjords and glaciers. It’s an inspiring place to do science and this film is a wonderful way for us to show people what it’s really like to live and work in Greenland, as well as how the ice sheet is changing. And of course, the changes that happen in Greenland affect us all.”
PhD student Laurence Dyke added: “Working and filming in Greenland has been a total privilege: it is the most beautiful and inspiring place. The landscape is phenomenal – we had the opportunity to visit some of the biggest fjords in the world where very few people have ever been. It is also a pretty wild place and we experienced the midnight sun, the incredible Aurora Borealis and some intense and scary storms.
“Greenland is an amazing place to undertake research. Greenland’s ice is experiencing rapid changes and it is very exciting to be researching how the ice sheet has changed in the past. This research will contribute to our understanding of how the ice sheet will change in the future.”
The film has been supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Pathways to Impact initiative, and a Collaborative Awards in Science and Engineering Studentship from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).
The documentary screening forms part of Swansea University’s first Interdisciplinary Research Week, which runs throughout the week November 21-25, 2011.
The week showcases the wealth of interdisciplinary research excellence ongoing at Swansea, promotes best practice and is designed to stimulate new ideas and collaborations.
For more information www.swansea.ac.uk/research/interdisciplinary-research-week.
