7 June 2009 Kangerlussuaq Field Trip

Journal

Lars Berg Larsen, the Field operation Manager of NEEM took us on a field trip on our last day in Greenland. He said we were going to the "ice edge". At first, we saw so many giant hills of rocks and a lot of boulders.

Not a tree in sight — Every place you looked was brown, all different shades of brown

Evidence of glacial rocks were everywhere you looked.

Lars Berg Larsen, our field mager and "Tour Guide" — This was one big boulder left by the glacier

Every once in a while there was a small patch of purple flowers peaking out. He said the whole area will be purple in a week or so.

How can this flower grow in these rocks? — Soon the fields will be covered with these flowers

We drove about 30 minutes and saw something white on the horizon. It looked like clouds from a distance. This was the first sighting of Russell GlacierA mass of ice that persists for many years and notably deforms and flows under the influence of gravity..

Black ice — The ice picks up a lot of earth as it pushes its' way across the land

Does it look like it's growing or retreating?The whole area of Kangerlussuaq is very dry and dusty. Can you find evidence of that in this picture?

Russell Glacier, Kangerlussuaq — Another example of black ice.Check out the layers!

We stopped and had a picnic and this was our view. Fabulous!

This was one of my favorite spots — Can you believe this was where I had a picnic?

Next Lars wanted to show us another glacier that is calving (breaking off). We had to drive on a sandy, windy road and I was worried we wouldn't make it. Another 30 minutes later, these pictures are what we saw!