Our undergraduate Physical Geography fieldtrip this year took students to the Italian Alps to learn about glaciers, geomorphology and hazards of alpine environments.
Dmitri Mauquoy and Brice Rea travelled to the Italian Alps (Refugio Monte Bianco, Courmayeur) with 11 of our students between 11 to 18 June. We spent a week there and apart from a brief period of light rain and some rumbles of thunder, the weather was glorious! The first two days were interactive ‘look-see’ days which involved hiking to see two glaciers in the Veni and Ferret valleys and discussing the geomorphology, biogeography and hazards of alpine environments.
For the next three days students collected data for their projects, which this year revolved around i) using lichenometry to reconstruct glacier dynamics and ii) measuring the composition and diversity of plants in alpine foreland sequences. On the last day students worked up their data and delivered their presentations in the afternoon. Both groups delivered excellent presentations this year, so well done!