ISU professor "going with the floe"

While Iowans have fought ice build up this winter, an Iowa State University professor will soon be under 700 feet of the frozen liquid. Neal Iverson is an I-S-U geology professor who’s leaving Saturday to spend three weeks under a glacier in Norway. The glacier has unusual tunnels excavated in the rock underneath the ice. Iverson says this glacier moves about six inches per day. He’ll be monitoring the things that influence its movement. The research will yield more information on how glaciers move based on environmental changes. He says the movement of glaciers can impact the climate all across the world. Fast movement of glaciers can push fresh water into the ocean, which impacts ocean circulation and heat transfer into the atmosphere. Iverson says “going with the floe” is not the most comfortable research setting. This will be Iverson’s third visit to this particular glacier. The research is funded by the National Science Foundation.