Anne Flink

I have always wanted to work with glaciers, either as a mountain guide or as a researcher. During my years as a geography bachelor student at Stockholm University, I became fascinated about Svalbard and its glaciers.  When I learned that Stockholm University provided a two year Master’s program in glaciology and that there is a research and education centre, the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) in Longyearbyen, I immediately decided that this was the road I was going to take, hoping to combine my studies in Stockholm and Svalbard. I was fortunate and did my Master Thesis at both, UNIS and Stockholm University, studyng the submarine landforms at the front of the surging tidewater glacier Tunabreen in Tempelfjorden, Spitsbergen.

PhD Project

After finishing my Master Thesis, I continued as a PhD student at UNIS, within the same field of research. At UNIS I will investigate the morphological and sedimentological imprint of the last, Late Weichselian, ice sheet in the poorly known northern Barents Sea. The Barents Sea Ice sheet was a marine based ice sheet, similar to the present West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which makes it an important and challenging study area.

The aim of my PhD project is to investigate the configuration, flow patterns and retreat dynamics of the Late Weichselian ice sheet, using seafloor geological and geomorphological records. The project will synthesize various data, such as high-resolution multibeam bathymetry for glacial geomorphology, acoustic sub-bottom profiles for structure and distribution of subsurface sediments and landforms, and gravity cores for selected sedimentological and geotechnical properties in order to facilitate the interpretation of the acoustic data and to study the late- and postglacial sedimentation patterns. Dating of organic carbon extracted from the cores will enable to establish a chronology for ice sheet retreat and an age model for reconstructing the late- and postglacial sedimentary environment in the northern Barents Sea, east of Svalbard.