UNIS Professor Doug Benn has just published the second edition of his book “Glaciers and Glaciation”. The updated version features a lot of information about the glaciers of Svalbard.

Text: Eva Therese Jenssen

UNIS Professor Doug Benn has over the past few years been updating the “Glaciers and Glaciation” book, together with co-author David Evans from Durham University (UK).

The first edition was published back in 1998. At that time, professor Benn had never set foot in Svalbard. In 2006 he left St. Andrews University in Scotland to join the UNIS staff.

Since then, he has done a lot of field work in Svalbard, in addition to several expeditions to Himalayan glaciers.

Thus, the second edition contains a lot of examples from Svalbard, in addition to a new chapter, on glaciers and sea-level change.

A resource for next generation of glacial experts
Readers of “Glaciers and Glaciation” (Hodder Arnold Publication) can now benefit from the authors’ recent knowledge about glaciation - and get an overview of the unanswered questions that still exist.

Much has changed over the past 12 years that have passed between the first and second edition of the book, according to professor Benn.

There is much more concern about climate change and its impact on the glaciers of the world now than back then.

– The emphasis of the scientific community has changed to take into account climate change and what it does – and does not do – to glaciers in the different parts of the world.

- We have maintained the same philosophy from the first edition, which is to focus on how things work. This book is meant to be a resource for the next generation of glacial experts, and be one of many tools to help them solve the riddles that we still don’t know the answers to, Benn says.

What we do and do not know
One of the biggest unanswered questions about glaciers is this: how fast are glaciers actually changing in the different parts of the world? Last years debate over the fate of the Himalayan glaciers proves that there is a lot we do not know – yet, according to Benn.

- The mistaken view that the glaciers in Himalaya would be gone by 2035 got a lot of publicity. We can say for sure that it will not happen so soon, but we do not know the exact rates of the melting process, he says.

- Even basic questions like, how fast will a glacier move in a given situation – is still not satisfactorily answered, Benn says.

The book does not aim at giving all the answers, because no one knows all the answers – yet. But the authors aim at explaining the state-of-the-art and discuss the areas where we still lack knowledge.

– We highlight what we do not know as much as what we do know, Benn explains.

The book will be part of the curriculum for the glaciology course AG-325 and the marine geology course AG-339.

Professor Doug Benn on fieldwork inside the glacier Hansbreen. (Photo: Jason Gully).