Tracing Warm Lines through the Ice: Robots, Rasmussen and Receding Ice in Greenland’s Wolstenholme Fjord
Join The Explorers Club to learn about the Icefin ROV, and a recent expedition collecting data in the warming waters underneath Greenlandic glaciers.
The Northwest of Greenland has a storied history of exploration and science from indigenous communities who thrive in this stark and beautiful region to the beginning of European exploration and exchange in the early 1900s, led by the likes of Rasmussen and Freucken. Now with a warming climate driving ice loss and increased melting off the continent, the environment and ecosystems that depend on it are also changing. To capture these changes and understand their effects, in February-April 2025, Britney Schmidt, EC50 and team deployed the underwater vehicle Icefin over 10 science dives in multiple locations within the Fjord adjacent to the US Pituffik Space Force base. There, they captured the effects of the warming ocean on the changing ice extent, including conducting the first ever robotic exploration of subglacial rivers below Greenland, swimming upstream beneath the glacier that bears Rasmussen’s name. The team discovered a massive nearly two degree warming of the ocean in the region over the past ten years, and recorded both modern conditions and the history of the retreating ice using sensors onboard Icefin. Come meet Icefin and explore this amazing, savage and yet delicate place from above and below, and join the discussion of how to responsibly and meaningfully explore such powerful and important polar environments.
The Icefin team at Cornell University is an interdisciplinary team of scientists & engineers of many kinds that work together to build and deploy frontier technologies in challenging environments. The team is lead by Prof. Britney Schmidt, an astrobiologist and polar scientist who focuses on worlds covered by oceans and ice. Scientists, Engineers and Students on the team will be there to meet & greet and help present the work of the team.
This in-person event at the Explorers Club Headquarters will include an audience Q&A.
RESERVATIONS
This will be an in-person lecture at Explorers Club Headquarters.
In-person tickets are $20 for Members, and $35 for the General Public.
Check-in will begin at 6:00 pm, with a beer and wine reception from 6:00 – 7:00 pm
Britney Schmidt
Dr. Britney Schmidt, associate professor at Cornell University, specializes in studying ice on Earth and other planets. A native of Tucson, Arizona, she received a BS in Physics and PhD in Geophysics & Space Physics. She and her team build robotic tools, including the underwater vehicle Icefin. Schmidt is a member of NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission, has conducted 11 polar field expeditions, and has been awarded over $25 million in grants. Schmidt serves on the Board of Directors of The Planetary Society, is a founding co-director of the Scientific Society for Astrobiology. Schmidt has been recognized for teaching and research, including AGU’s Nye Lectureship and the NASA Early Career Fellowship. She was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2023.
