You are browsing the archive for climate change glacier retreat Archives - From a Glacier's Perspective.
September 27, 2023
From Mount Hood to Mount Robson Extremely Limited 2023 Snowcover Retained
Written by Ben Pelto, Jill Pelto and Mauri Pelto Field Sketch of Ice Worm Glacier from Aug. 13, 2023 on photograph of glacier. (Jill Pelto) It was July 5, 1981 and Juneau meteorologist Brad Coleman had just informed us that Juneau had experienced one of its warmest least snowy winter ever. I was with the Juneau Icefield Research Program and we were headed up to the icefield the next day, …
September 7, 2023
35th Consecutive Year of Alpine Glacier Loss-in State of Climate 2022
For the 14th year I had the opportunity to author the Alpine Glacier section of the State of the Climate 2022 report published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorolocial Society. Below is this report with additional images. An increasing frequency of heat waves impacting glaciated mountain ranges continues to lead to large mass balance losses. In 2022 heat events in the European Alps, Svalbard, High Mountain Asia and the …
December 29, 2022
Loss of Hinman Glacier, North Cascade Range 1958-2022
Himan Glacier in 1958 USGS map and in 2022 Sentinel 2 False Color image. The three ice masses with an area greater than 0.01 km² are indicated. Hinman Glacier had descended the northwest flank of Mount Hinman in the North Cascades, Washington and based on 1958 aerial photographs, Hinman Glacier the USGS had listed this as the largest glacier in the North Cascades south of Glacier Peak with an area …
October 9, 2022
Lyman Glacier Lost Half its area from 1979-2022
Map illustrating changes in Lyman Glacier 1890-2017- losing 87% of its area. Lyman Glacier which feeds into Lyman Lake and then Railroad Creek in the Lake Chelan drainage of the North Cascade Range, Washington has retreated a total of 1330 m from the 1890 moraine. In 1929 year the terminus position was mapped by the Washington Water Power Company. The Washington Water Power Company emplaced a benchmark from which to …
July 20, 2022
Glacier Landslides and Collapses Preconditioned by Warming
Lamplugh Glacier, Alaska in 2015 (before) and 2016 (after) landslide in Landsat images. The Landslide covered 17 km2 of the glacier, yellow dots. B=Brady, L=Lamplugh, R=Reid Glacier. Ice whether as permafrost, in a glacier, filling cracks or coating surfaces literally helps stabilize materials on mountain slopes. Climbers who ascend glaciated peaks have long practiced early starts to avoid the heat of the day. The goal to avoid falling, rock, ice …
November 4, 2021
Drogpa Nagtsang Glacier, China 2021 Snow Line Positions Lake Expansion
Drogpa Nagtsang Glacier, China retreat and proglacial expansion in 1993 and 2021 Landsat images. Red arrow is the 1993 terminus, yellow arrow the 2021 terminus and yellow dots are the snowline. Drogpa Nagtsang Glacier, China is 30 km west of Mount Everest terminating in an expanding proglacial lake. The glacier begins on the Nepal border at 6400 m, and its meltwater enters the Tamakoshi River that supplies the Upper Tamakoshi …
October 22, 2021
From Shasta, CA to Adams to Baker, WA to Kokanee, BC to Banff, AB High Glacier Mass Loss in 2021
Easton Glacier on Mount Baker in late August 2021, with less than 20% of the glacier retaining snowpack. The exceptional heat of the summer of 2021 across glaciated mountain ranges of the Pacific Northwest, reduced snowcover extent from Mount Shasta, CA north to Mount Adams and Mount Baker, WA and east to Glacier National Park, MT, Kokanee Glacier, BC and Bonnet Glacier, Alberta. Here we examine late summer images to illustrate the extent …
October 12, 2021
Sholes Glacier, WA and a Cascade of Ologies
Watercolor painting of Sholes Glacier. The small figure is at the current terminus of the glacier, and the photo that inspired this painting was taken from where the glacier used to end about 35 years prior. By Jill Pelto Sholes Glacier is on the northeast flank of Mount Baker, WA. We have spent the last 32 years completing detailed measurments on this glacier that has revealed a story of glacier …
September 28, 2021
Kokanee Glacier 2021: slash and burn
By Ben Pelto, PhD, UBC Mitacs Elevate Postdoctoral Research Fellow Since 2013 I have been working on the Kokanee Glacier. Located just outside of Nelson in southeastern British Columbia (BC), the Kokanee Glacier is due north of the Washington-Idaho border. This work began as part of a five-year study of the cryosphere in the Canadian portion of the Columbia River. This project was carried out by the Canadian Columbia River …
April 13, 2021
Benito Glacier, Chile 2021 Calving Event Drives Further Retreat
Benito Glacier in 2000 and 2021 Landsat images. Locations 1-6 are current or former distributary terminus locations. Red arrow is the 2000 terminus location and yellow arrow the 2021 terminus location. A small cloud is obscuring an iceberg near terminus. Purple dots are the snowline. Benito Glacier is a temperate outlet glacier on the west side of the North Patagonian Icefield terminating in an expanding lake. The glacier is …
Dean of Academic Affairs at Nichols College and Professor of Environmental Science at Nichols College in Massachusetts since 1989. Glaciologist directing the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project since 1984. This project monitors the mass balance and behavior of more glaciers than any other in North America.