Professor Michael Hambrey

Professor
BSc in Geography & Geology and PhD in Glaciology from the University of Manchester. Chartered Geologist (C.Geol., Geological Society) Photograph of Professor Michael Hambrey.

Contact

Email: mjh@aber.ac.uk
Office: J9
Phone: +44 (0)1970 621 860
Fax: +44 (0)1970 622 659

Responsibilities

  • Institutional Consortium Director, Climate Change Consortium of Wales
  • Chairman,  IGES Examination Board for Entrance Scholarships

Teaching Areas

Contributes to:

  • Palaeoglaciology (GG33920)
  • Geography Science Fieldwork (GG21920)
  • Process Glaciology (GG30320)
  • Glacial Processes And Products (EAM1020)
  • Glaciological Field Techniques (EAM2320)

Research

Group Affiliation

Research Interests

  • Glacial processes in the Arctic, Antarctic, Alps, Himalaya and Andes
  • Palaeoglaciology of Britain (Quaternary), Antarctica (Cenozoic) and Svalbard/Greenland (Proterozoic)

Other Projects

Current PhD Students

Biography

Michael Hambrey graduated with BSc in Geography & Geology and PhD in Glaciology at the University of Manchester. He spent 3 years as a post-doctoral research assistant at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and 14 years as a Research Associate at Cambridge University, before moving to Liverpool John Moores University as Head of Earth Sciences and Professor of Quaternary Geology in 1991. After 6 years in that post he moved to Aberystwyth in 1996 and became Director for the Centre for Glaciology and Professor of Glaciology in 1998. He served in this capacity until March 2009, when he stepped down to lead the development of the Climate Change Consortium of Wales (C3W), a partnership of Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff and Swansea universities. This 6-year project was awarded funding of £4m by the Welsh Assembly Government in November 2009, and Mike served as its Founding Director until September 2010. He is now Aberystwyth’s Institutional Consortium Director for C3W.

Mike  has also held visiting research fellowships at the Victoria University of Wellington  and the University of Otago in New Zealand, the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He was awarded the Polar Medal by HM The Queen in 1989, and was recognised in the naming of "Hambrey Cliffs" on James Ross Island in Antarctica in 2006.

Mike's research interests are strongly field-focussed, and include structural glaciology, Cenozoic glacial history of Antarctica, Quaternary glacial history of Britain and Proterozoic glaciations of the High Arctic.

Mike serves on a number of committees. He is Secretary of the Geosciences Standing Scientific Group of the Scientific Commission on Antarctic Research (SCAR). He is currently a member of the UK National Committee on Antarctic Research, UK Geoscience Delegate to SCAR, and Chief Editor for the International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences XI (Edinburgh, July 2011).

Additional Interests

Recent News

  • Cambridge University Press have recently reprinted in paperback form “Earth’s Pre-Pleistocene Glacial Record”. Originally published in 1981, the book is a 1000-page compilation of all then-known ancient glacial deposits of pre-Pleistocene age for the International Geological Correlation Programme. It was edited by Michael Hambrey and the late Brian Harland (Cambridge University), and includes substantial chapters by the editors analysing the globally distributed data. Details may be found on the publisher’s website.
  • Mike Hambrey’s book with Jürg Alean entitled “Glaciers” (Cambridge University Press, 2006), written for the wider public, has recently been translated into Japanese.

Staff Publications

Peer Reviewed Book Chapters & Journal Articles

In Press

  1. Hambrey, M.J. (in press). Structural Glaciology. In: Singh, V.P., Singh, P. & Haritashya, U.K. Encyclopedia of  Snow, Ice and Glaciers. Dordrecht: Springer.
  2. Hambrey, M.J. & Glasser, N.F. (in press). Sediment entrainment, transfer and deposition. In: Singh, V.P., Singh, P. & Haritashya, U.K. Encyclopedia of Snow, Ice and Glaciers. Dordrecht: Springer. 

2010

  1. Hambrey MJ, Fitzsimons SJ. 2010. Development of sediment-landform associations at cold glacier margins, Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Sedimentology, 57, 857-882.

2009

  1. Nelson AE, Smellie JL, Hambrey MJ, Williams M, Vautravers M, Salzmann U, McArthur JM, Regelous M. 2009. Neogene glacigenic debris flows on James Ross Island, northern Antarctic Peninsula, and heir implications for regional climate history. Quaternary Science Reviews, (28): 3138-3160.
  2. Hambrey MJ, Quincey DJ, Glasser NF, Reynolds JM, Richardson SJ, Clemmens S. 2009. Sedimentological, geomorphological and dynamic context of debris-mantled glaciers, Mount Everest (Sagarmatha) region, Nepal. Quaternary Science Reviews, (28): 1084-1084. DOI
  3. Patton H, Hambrey MJ. 2009. Ice-marginal sedimentation associated with the Late Devensian Welsh Ice Cap and the Irish Sea Ice Stream: Tonfanau, West Wales. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 120(4): 256-274.
  4. Sahlin EAU, Glasser NF, Jansson KN, Hambrey MJ. 2009. Connectivity analyses of valley patterns indicate preservation of a preglacial fluvial valley system in the Dyfi basin, Wales. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, 120: 245-255. DOI
  5. Hambrey MJ. 2009. Arctic Islands, Geology. Encyclopedia of Islands, : 55-59.

2008

  1. Hambrey MJ, Quincey DJ, Glasser NF, Reynolds JM, Richardson SD, Clemmens S. 2008. Sedimentological, geomorphological and dynamic context of debris-mantled glaciers, Mount Everest (Sagarmatha) region, Nepal. Quaternary Science Reviews, 27(25-26): 2361-2389.
  2. Hambrey M, Smellie J, Nelson A, Johnson J. 2008. Late Cenozoic glacier-volcano interaction on James Ross Island and adjacent areas, Antarctic Peninsula region. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 120: 709-731. DOI

2007

  1. Quincey DJ, Richardson SD, Luckman A, Lucas RM, Reynolds JM, Hambrey MJ, Glasser NF. 2007. Early recognition of glacial lake hazards in the Himalaya using remote sensing datasets. Global and Planetary Change, 56: 137-152.
  2. Graham DJ, Bennett MR, Glasser NF, Hambrey MJ, Huddart D, Midgley NG. 2007. 'A test of the englacial thrusting hypothesis of "hummocky" moraine formation: case studies from the northwest Highlands, Scotland': Comments. Boreas, 36: 103-107.
  3. Hambrey MJ, Glasser NF, McKelvey BC, Sugden DE, Fink D. 2007. Cenozoic landscape evolution of an East Antarctic oasis (Radok Lake area, northern Prince Charles Mountains), and its implications for the glacial and climatic history of Antarctica. Quaternary Science Reviews, 26: 598-626.

2006

  1. Christoffersen P, Hambrey MJ. 2006. Is the Greenland Ice Sheet in a state of collapse. Geology Today, 22: 98-103.
  2. Fink D, McKelvey B, Hambrey MJ, Fabel D, Brown R. 2006. Pleistocene deglaciation chronology of the Radok Lake basin, Amery Oasis, northern Prince Charles Mountains, Antarctica. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 243: 229-243.
  3. Fink D, McKelvey B, Hambrey MJ, Fabel D, Brown R. 2006. Pleistocene deglaciation chronology of the Amery Oasis and Radok Lake, northern Prince Charles Mountains, Antarctica. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 243: 229-243.
  4. Hambrey MJ, Smellie JL. 2006. Distribution, lithofacies and environmental context of Neogene glacial sequences on James Ross and Vega Islands, Antarctic Peninsula. Cretaceous-Tertiary High-Latitude Palaeoenvironments, James Ross Basin, Antarctica, 258: 187-200.

2005

  1. Goodsell B, Hambrey MJ, Glasser NF, Nienow P, Mair D. 2005. The structural glaciology of a temperate valley glacier: Haut Glacier d-'Arolla, Valais, Switzerland. Arctic Antarctic and Alpine Research, 37: 218-232.
  2. Goodsell B, Hambrey MJ, Glasser NF. 2005. Debris transport in a temperate valley glacier: Haut Glacier d'Arolla, Valais, Switzerland. Journal of Glaciology, 51: 139-146.
  3. Quincey DJ, Lucas RM, Richardson SD, Glasser NF, Hambrey MJ, Reynolds JM. 2005. Optical remote sensing techniques in high-mountatin environments: application to glacial hazards. Progress in Physical Geography, 29: 475-505.
  4. Hubbard B, Heald A, Reynolds JM, Quincey D, Richardson SD, Luyo MZ, Portilla NS, Hambrey MJ. 2005. Impact of a rock avalanche on a moraine-dammed proglacial lake: Laguna Safuna Alta, Cordillera Blanca, Peru. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 30: 1251-1264.
  5. Hambrey MJ, Murray T, Glasser NF, Hubbard A, Hubbard B, Stuart G, Hansen S, Kohler J. 2005. Structure and changing dynamics of a polythermal valley glacier on a centennial timescale: Midre Lovenbreen, Svalbard. Journal of Geophysical Research-Earth Surface, 110
  6. Hambrey MJ, Glasser NF. 2005. Sedimentary processes: Glaciers. Encyclopedia of Geology, : 663-678.

Conference Proceedings

2007

  1. Midgley NG, Glasser NF, Hambrey MJ. 2007. Sedimentology, structural characteristics and morphology of a high-Arctic moraine-mound complex: Midre Lovénbreen, Svalbard. Glacial Sedimentary Processes and Products, SP 39: 11-22.
  2. Graham DJ, Hambrey MJ. 2007. Sediments and landforms in an upland glaciated valley landsystem: upper Ennerdale, English Lake District. Glacial Sedimentary Processes and Products, : 235-256.
  3. Hambrey MJ, Christoffersen P, Glasser NF, Hubbard B. 2007. Glacial Sedimentary Processes and Products. International Conference on Glacial Sedimentary Processes and Products, 39

Magazine Articles

2006

  1. Christoffersen P, Hambrey MJ. 2006. Is the Greenland Ice Sheet in a state of collapse. Geology To

Public Outreaches

2006

  1. Christoffersen P, Hambrey MJ. 2006. Is the Greenland Ice Sheet in a state of collapse?. Geology Today, 22: 98-103.

Miscellaneous

2006

  1. Christoffersen P, Hambrey MJ. 2006. Is the Greenland Ice Sheet in a state of collapse?. Geology Today, 22: 98-103.