“On the run” may not be the right trans­la­ti­on, but some of them show a beha­viour that sci­en­tists call a “sur­ge”, that is a rapid advan­ce at a speed that exceeds the nor­mal one by a fac­tor of up to 100, after a quiet pha­se of many deca­des. This phe­no­me­non is com­mon for gla­ciers on Sval­bard. Moni­ca Sund, a geo­lo­gist at UNIS, has iden­ti­fied sur­ging gla­ciers, inclu­ding Kropp­b­reen which is in a very ear­ly sta­te of a sur­ge – a sci­en­ti­fi­cal­ly very inte­res­t­ing dis­co­very. 

Source: Sval­bard Sci­ence Forum