You are browsing the archive for climate change glacier retreat Archives - Page 3 of 9 - From a Glacier's Perspective.
April 3, 2017
Dama Blanca Glacier Retreat, Southern Chile
Dama Blanca Glacier in Landsat images from 1986 and 2017. Red arrow is the 1986 terminus, yellow arrow the 2017 terminus, purple dots the snowline and purple arrows a bedrock ridge. Dama Blanca Glacier drains west from Chile’s Sarmiento de Gamboa Range in Southern Patagonia. terminating in Lago Verde in the Alacalufes National Reserve. Alacalufes NR features kelp rich fjords, Northofagus coastal forests and glacier clad alpine zones. Davies and Glasser, …
February 24, 2017
Shoup Glacier, Alaska Retreat, Thinning, Velocity Decline
Shoup Glacier comparison in 1986 and 2016 Landsat images. The glacier retreated 1900 m in this interval. Red arrow is 1986 terminus, yellow arrow the 2016 terminus, green arrow rock rib emerging from beneath glacier, purple dots a landslide deposit, and purple arrow the snowline. Shoup Glacier is between the Columbia Glacier and Valdez draining from the Chugach Mountains in southern Alaska. The glacier was a tidewater terminating glacier until …
February 17, 2017
State of Alpine Glaciers in 2016-Negative for 37th Consecutive Year
Figure 1. Global Alpine glacier annual mass balance record of reference glaciers submitted to the World Glacier Monitoring Service. Each year I write the section of the BAMS State of the Climate on Alpine Glaciers. What follows is the initial draft of that with a couple of added images and an added paragraph. The World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) record of mass balance and terminus behavior (WGMS, 2015) provides a …
October 28, 2016
Coley Glacier Retreat, James Ross Island, Antarctica
Coley Glacier terminus comparsion in Landsat images from 2000 (red arrows) and 2016 (yellow arrow) indicating a retreat of 2 km along the western side and 1 km along the eastern side. Purple dots indicate the transient snowline and the purple arrow an area of debris exposed with glacier thinning. Coley Glacier is a tidewater glacier on the northeast side of James Ross Island near the tip of the Antarctic …
October 14, 2016
2016 Field Season Results-North Cascade Glacier Climate Project
For Mount Baker, Washington the freezing level from January-April 20 was not as high as the record from 2015, but still was 400 m above the long term mean. April 1 snowpack at the key long term sites in the North Cascades was 8% above average. A warm spring altered this, with April being the warmest on record. The three-four weeks ahead of normal on June 10th, but three weeks …
September 20, 2016
South Sawyer Glacier Retreat and Separation, Alaska
Comparison of South Sawyer Terminus position and unnamed glacier just to the south. Red arrows are the 1985 terminus and yellow arrows the 2016 position of each terminus. South Sawyer Glacier is a 50 km long tidewater glacier terminating at the head of Tracy Arm fjord in Southeast Alaska. The winding fjord surrounded by steep mountains is fed by Sawyer and South Sawyer Glacier is home to stellar sea lions, humpback …
September 14, 2016
Herbert Glacier Retreat, Alaska 1984-2016
Comparison of Herbert Glacier terminus position in Landsat images from 1984 and 2016. Red arrow 1984 terminus, yellow arrow 2016 terminus and pink arrow a tributary that has separated. Herbert Glacier drains the west side of the 4000 square kilometer Juneau Icefield in Southeast Alaska. It is the glacier just north of the more well known Mendenhall Glacier and just south of Eagle Glacier. It is also the first glacier …
September 8, 2016
World Glacier Monitoring Service 30th Anniversary
The numbers on the left y-axis depict quantities of glacial mass loss from the WGMS and sea level rise, and the suns across the horizon contain numbers that represent the global increase in temperature, coinciding with the timeline on the lower x-axis From Jill Pelto The World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) celebrated 30 years of achievement last week. I have had the privilege of being the United States representative to the …
August 25, 2016
Kronotsky Peninsula, Kamchatka Glacier Fragmentation/Retreat
The Kronotsky Peninsula is on the east coast of Kamchatka and has an small concentration of alpine glaciers. A recent paper by Lynch et al (2016) indicates a significant recession during the start of the 21st century in Kamchatka. They note a 24% loss in area, leading to fragmentation and an increase in the number of ice masses that could be considered glaciers. Lynch et al (2016) further note that the …
August 2, 2016
Glaciers in BAMS State of Climate 2015
Decrease in Glacier Mass Balance uses measurements from 1980-2014 of the average mass balance for a group of North Cascade, WA glaciers. Mass balance is the annual budget for the glaciers: total snow accumulation minus total snow ablation. Not only are mass balances consistently negative, they are also continually decreasing. Glaciers have been one of the key and most iconic examples of the impact of global warming. BAMS State of …
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.