THE BOOK
Some of the ideas discussed in this blog are published in my new book called "The Stonehenge Bluestones" -- available by post and through good bookshops everywhere. Bad bookshops might not have it....
To order, click
HERE

Friday 10 September 2010

East Greenland 1962



In case anybody wonders where all this interest in ice came from, it started in Iceland in 1960, on one expedition from Oxford University, and then came this -- East Greenland 1962. A life-changing experience, if ever there was one.....

2 comments:

welshlass said...

My Greenland is beautiful! It must have indeed been a life altering experience. Comparing glacier flow with lava flow is interesting. Other forms of earth actions/space--a spiral galaxy vs a hurricane vs the "chambered Nautilus" follow great patterns. Have you had any later photos of the same area to now compare the terrain/ice flows, etc with 60 and 62? It is marvelous how the people continue to survive in this spartan environment--but they have done so for eons of time, haven't they? What is the beautiful musical score that is in the background? I would like to be able to get all of it to hear.

BRIAN JOHN said...

Yes, East Greenland is amazing -- which is why a lot of it has now been designated as a National Park. But the pressures are the same as ever -- there are some valuable minerals there, and the Greenland Government is trying to encourage mining corporations to move in. A lot of mineral exploration has been done already -- even in the National Park area......

The music is the Karl Jenkins Benedictus -- the film was put together from expedition slides by Dave's brother Chris, presumably using iMovie.

I agree -- natural patterns are amazing -- spirals, circles, flowlines etc, manifesting themselves in a variety of flowing and growing media.

In the 50 or so years since I was there the glaciers have changed enormously. I'm looking into that -- but from the new satellite images on Google Earth it looks as if some of the glacier snouts that we had to struggle across have now retreated far up into their valleys. I'll try to post some illustrations.

And some idiots still pretend that climate change isn't happening.....