Once inside the glacier, the researchers make their way through a water-cut channel through the ice. The channel is know as a 'cut-and-closure' channel, as the meltwater has cut down into the glacier and then the ice has closed over the top creating a slit-shaped ice cave.
Here you can see two of the research team, Jane and Stephen, from Aberystwyth University, using a laser scanner to create a 3D model of the internal shape of the channel.
Not much is known about channels inside glaciers and the team are interested in how the flow of water through a glacier can affect melt rates. They will return next year to measure how the channel has changed over a melt season. Then this data will be used to improve the models for glacial and ice sheet melt in the Arctic.
It's sobering to think that if the Greenland ice sheet and all the glaciers in the Arctic were to melt, the sea level would rise by over six metres.
Love from the Arctic,
Jamie
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