June 10, 2013
Neve Glacier Retreat, North Cascades, Washington
Posted by Mauri Pelto
I have had the opportunity to visit the Neve Glacier on eight occasions, it is not easy to get to. In the North Cascades it is one of a handful of glaciers with a large higher elevation accumulation zone, that is not on a volcano. The glacier feeds Diablo Lake, part of the Skagit River hydropower system. The terminus of the glacier in 1975 was in basin that receives considerable avalanche deposition slowing the retreat. In this post we focus on the thinning of the glacier leading to expansion of bedrock exposures at four locations above the former terminus, that by 2011 had led to this low lying basin being dynamically cutoff from the upper glacier. In each image the red letters A-D are located in the same spot, and the purple arrow on the Google Earth images indicates the terminus position. The first image is an aerial view of the glacier from Austin Post, USGS from 1975: at point A there is a quite small exposure of bedrock, at Point B and C there is a good connection of feeder glaciers from the higher slopes to the main valley glacier. At Point D there is continuous glacier cover. This was the case during my first two visits to the glacier in 1985 and 1988, second image. The third image is from 1990 and reflects limted change from 1975 as well, the blue arrows indicate glacier flow.
- 1975 Neve Glacier-Austin Post
- 1988 Neve Glacier
- 1990 Neve Glacier-Google Earth
- Nev Glacier adjacent to Point A 1996
- Neve Glacier 2001
- Neve Glacier 2001
- Neve Glacier main trunk 2001
- Neve Glacier accumulation zone 2001
- Neve Glacier 2009 Accumulation zone
- 1990 Neve Glacier-Google Earth
- 2006 Neve Glacier-Google Earth
- 2009 Neve Glacier-Google Earth
- 2009 Bedrock area at Point A