Archive for the ‘Glaciology and Geography’ Category

With regard to the project “On the Trails of the Glaciers” and its first expedition, hold in Karakorum in summer 2009, on October 15th 2010, a convention titled “1909-2009: One hundred years of glaciology and photography in Karakorum. Problems and results of a secular symbiosis”  will be held at the prestigious Italian Geographic Society. Among the speakers there will be prof. Claudio Smiraglia, prof. Kenneth Hewitt and Fabiano Ventura.

During the convention a selection of the prints of the photographic exhibition “On the Trails of the Glaciers. 1909-2009: one hundred years of climate change on Karakoram’s glaciers”, held last winter in Rome’s Sala S. Rita with great success, will be shown.

Click here to download the brochure

Click here to download the press release

The prestigious American magazine “American Scientist” published in the march-april 2010 - nr. 98 issue in the column “Sightings”, dedicated to the innovative use of photography in different scientific fields, an interview to Prof. Kenneth Hewitt, member of our scientific committee an one of the world’s experts in Karakorum glaciers. Prof. Hewitt describes in the interview the characteristics of these glaciers and the changes occurred to them during the past one hundred years. The interview comes with a comparison of historical and modern images.

Click here to see the pdf version of the article

The prestigious French mountain magazine “Montagnes” published, in the April 2010 nr. 353 issue, an 8 pages article written by Prof. Kenneth Hewitt of our scientific committee, titled “On the trails of the Duke of Abruzzi – Karakorum’s glaciers one hundred years later”. In the article Hewitt describes the peculiarities of Karakorum’s glaciers and their changes occurred in the last one hundred years, which separate the former Duke of Abruzzi expedition from our expedition of 2009. Ample space is given in the article to the comparative photographs, that follow one after the other together with detailed captions.

Click here to see the PDF version of the article

From February, 25th to April, 1th 2010, the photographic exhibition “On the Trails of the Glaciers: 1909-2009: one hundred years of climate change on Karakoram’s glaciers” will be held at the Sala S. Rita of Rome.

The vernissage is on February, 24th 2010 at 18.00, at the Sala S. Rita of the Municipality of Rome, via Montanara 8, close to Piazza Venezia.

The exhibition, organized by Associazione Macromicro in collaboration with Enel Green Power and Zètema Progetto Cultura, promoted by the Assessorato alle Politiche Culturali e della Comunicazione del Comune di Roma, shows a comparison between historical and modern images of Karakorum’s glaciers, to study the changes in glaciers occurred during the past one hundred years to glaciers, significant environmental indicators of climate change on our planet.

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On Friday, 29th January 2010 at 21.15, within the mountain and exploration film festival “Views of summits”, organized by “Stefano Zavka” Association in Terni (Italy), Fabiano Ventura will present his project “On the Trails of the Glaciers” to the public.

The presentation will start showing the trailer of the documentary, which was realized by SD Cinematografica during the first expedition of the project. There will follow a discussion with the participation of Luigi Bignami, geologist and scientific journalist, Prof. Claudio Smiraglia, Professor at Milan’s University “Statale”, former President of the Italian Glaciological Committee, and Fabiano Ventura, mountain photographer and  leader of the project.

Furthermore, on Friday, 29th January 2010 at 17.30, Fabiano Ventura will hold a seminar on mountain photographic techniques, during which he will show his slideshow of 24 minutes “Vertical horizons”.

Click here to download the program.

Yesterday we finished some important observations on the area of Baltoro and in particular on his forehead. The extension of the glacier, with a basin area of 60 km in length, covering a range of altitudes between about 3650 meters of his forehead up to the 8611 meters of K2, and the grandeur of its numerous tributary glaciers, make its dynamics very complex. With these assumptions, it’s possible to  guess how the variables involved are many, just by thinking about the change in distribution of precipitation (snow or rain that may respectively contribute to the accumulation or ablation of the glacier) with changes in altitude or slope, which affect both directly and indirectly, through tributary glaciers, the mass balance of the Baltoro; also, the position of these  tributaries will determine sensible oscillations in their area of influence, more or less close to the front. Read the rest of this entry »

Compared to the landscape’s size you’re normally used, the area of Baltoro is truly breathtaking; apart its length of 60 km (the fifth longest glacier in the world), even its dynamics is surprising in comparison to what is usually seen on Alps or on classic textbooks; in addition to the classic crevasses and moraines, here we can observe various geomorphological shapes (sails, mushrooms, ice cones, etc). Among the many trekkers we have met along our path, when asked about the nature of the pathway and the time needed to reach the next step, they always replied: “Very far with many up and down”, but regardless of distance, where do these continuous ups and downs originate? Read the rest of this entry »

Among the extensive amount of debris and huge longitudinal moraines developing along the valley of the Baltoro, there are peculiar alignments of naked ice, shapes classified as ice sails. These are shapes whose origin is still debated in the literature. Going up the valley of the Baltoro, it was possible to appreciate the evolutive dynamics of these shapes since, moving from valley to mountain, it’s like to travel backwards in time along the “life” of these formations, from their genesis to their undoing. At the end of the glacier, in fact, these forms appear to be buried by the surrounding moraines while in the Concordia circus ice sails dominate on the surrounding debris. This phenomenon is probably related both to the differential ablation between ice covered with debris and naked ice, and to the erosion caused by the fusion waters. Read the rest of this entry »