Marion Island is a peak of a shield volcano located in the southern Indian Ocean. Annexed by South Africa in 1948, the island has been strategically important for the collection of climatological data and marine and terrestrial research in a vast, oceanic region of the globe. This paper reviews the series of earth science programmes on Marion Island over the last 25 years, provides a synthesis of the research outcomes and demonstrates how field and laboratory methods have developed over time. Marion Island has, globally, one of the most active soil frost environments in a distinctive periglacial setting and understanding this contemporary periglacial environment has been a key objective of the research programmes., Geomorphological processes have important implications for local ecosystem functioning and define the regional and global significance for diurnal soil frost environments and climate change. The review presented here shows that keeping abreast with the advancements of appropriate methodologies and technologies and the continued employment of a mix of new 2 and established methods has driven the earth science research in this unique island environment. A series of short vignettes present the most recent advancements on old key questions and indicate that new techniques continuously challenges us to re-evaluate the most basic of assumptions that exist within our research.

Investigations of openwork block deposits have the potential to improve understanding of the production of substrates for biological colonisation, the control of geological structure and the impacts of climate change on landforms. As part of research into the morphology and characterisation of a blockfield located on the Northern Buttress of the Vesleskarvet Nunataks, Western Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica (2°W, 71°S), this paper investigates the influence that aspect has on weathering for a blockfield using data collected during the 2009–2012 Austral summer seasons. Proxy data recorded for weathering included rock hardness rebound values as well as visual evidence of flaking, pitting, surface roughness and lichen presence. Aspect was found to affect weathering of blockfield samples across the study site, with the south‐facing sides being the least weathered of the directional aspects. This paper argues that a higher radiation budget associated with slope aspect and angle could drive thermal regimes and subsequent weathering of clast faces. Furthermore, in the absence of abundant precipitation, ice and snow cover become the primary source of moisture in this high‐latitude Antarctic environment.

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The glaciers in the Aktru River basin of Gornyi Altai, Russia currently represent some of the fastest receding glaciers in the world. Formation of the morainic complexes closest to the contemporary glaciers in the Aktru River basin took place during the 17th -18th centuries with recession commencing at the end of the 18th century. Coupled with this glacial retreat, earth surface processes and vegetation succession are responding to shape the glacier forelands. This article presents the first geomorphological maps for the upper reaches of the Aktru River basin and focuses on the geomorphological landforms that occur in the rapidly changing glacier forelands. Geomorphological mapping is difficult in steep mountainous regions and, thus, mapping was completed using satellite imagery, field mapping and observations coupled with highresolution aerial photography obtained from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Critical steps of the procedure used to process UAV imagery and difficulties encountered in this mountainous terrain are noted. The acquired spatial data enable the mapping and classification of small-scale transient geomorphological features such as talus, glacial and glaciofluvial landforms. Their dynamics provide insights into supraglacial and subglacial processes of the glaciers of the Aktru River basin and subsequent paraglacial adjustment. The presented highresolution spatial data, which can also be obtained at high temporal resolutions in the future, can act as a reference frame for geomorphologists and ecologists studying the temporal evolution of glacier forelands of the Aktru River basin during paraglacial adjustment and subsequent colonisation and stabilisation by biota.

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