On the 22nd April 2014 the 5th meeting of SURGE (Scottish Universities’ Research in Glacial Environments) was hosted by the School of Geographical & Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow. SURGE has met each year since 2010 at a different venue each year (previously in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Dunstaffnage, St Andrews) and arose from discussions at a SAGES Theme 1 meeting in Perth 2009. SURGE brings together the glacial research community based in Scotland to regularly share research in an informal setting, to discuss how expertise can bepooled with respect to future collaborations and grant proposals and tohelp foster asense of community and awareness amongst the rich range of glacial research expertise that exists within Scottish Universities and other academic-related institutions. The meetings have been generously supported by SAGES.
This year, over forty researchers from new PhD students to Emeritus Professors gathered in Glasgow for a full day of 22 talks and posters arranged into three main sessions, each including time for open discussion. SURGE meetings are never exclusively Scottish affairs and the Glasgow meeting was boosted by a welcome group of researchers from Durham University. More than half of the presentations were given by PhD students, exploring contemporary glacier processes & form and illuminating palaeo-glacial extent activity across an impressive geographical range including Antarctica (David Ashmore, Damon Davies, Shasta Marrero), the Greenland Ice Sheet (Andrew Tedstone, James Lea, Luca Foresta), Iceland (Penny How), South America (Chris Darvill), the Karakorum & Himalayas (Amaury Dehecq) and closer to home, in Scotland & the North Atlantic (Craig Frew, Hannah Bickerdike). The utility of well constructed modelling experiments to help us understand largely unobservable glacial processes was also very well demonstrated for the case of subglacial drainage outflow impacts on melt rates at the face of tidewater glaciers (Donald Slater).
The benefit of bringing together quite different perspectives on glacial processes and form was apparent during a lively open discussion on the efficacy of glaciers as agents of erosion prompted by talks from Colin Ballantyne and Derek Fabel, with notable contributions from Brice Rea, David Sugden, Dave Evans and Pete Nienow.
The meeting adjourned for drinks and a meal together where tall tales of glacial adventures past, present and future were embellished amongst high spirits. The local organizers, Trevor Hoey and Carol Thomson, are thanked and congratulated for such a successful and popular event. SURGE will return to SAMS in Dunstaffnage for its sixth meeting in November 2014.