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December 11, 2020
Blondujökull, Iceland Retreat Exposes Broad Landscape
Blöndujökull in Landsat images from 2000 and 2020 illustrating terminus position, yellow line is 2020 and red line is 2000. Blöndujökull is an outlet glacier on the west side of Hofsjökull, Iceland. The National Land Survey of Iceland has developed a DEM application that provides a detailed view of the islands glaciers and their immediate landscape. Johannesson (1997) reported the response time for Blöndujökull to a climate change as ~90-100 …
October 23, 2020
Tungnafellsjökull, Iceland Recession and Thinning 1999-2020
Tungnafellsjökull Ice Cap in 1999 and 2020 Landsat images indicating terminus changes at three northern outlets, red arrows, and at four locations of bedrock exposure. Tungnafellsjökull Ice Cap is a ~32km2 ice cap located between Vatnajökull and Hofsjökull. Gunnlaugsson (2016) reported on the mass balance changes of the Tungnafellsjökull Ice Cap and found it had lost 20 of its volume and 16% of its area from 1960-2013. The ice cap …
April 4, 2019
Norðurjökull Retreats from Hvítárvatn, Langjökull, Iceland
Norðurjökull in 1984 Landsat image and 2018 Sentinel image. Red arrows indicate the margins of the glacier in 1984. Purple dots indicate the snowline. Langjökull is the second largest icecap in Iceland with an area of 920 square kilometers (Jóhannesson (2009). One of the main outlet glaciers of Langjökull is the Norðurjökull which has terminated in Hvítárvatn. Hvítárvatn is a large lake that recieves 70% of its inflow from Langjökull …
June 13, 2017
Torfajökull, Iceland Accumulation Zone Demise Drives Recession
Torfajökull in 1994, adn 2014 Landsat images. Note the lack of retained snowpack in 2014 and emerging bedrock areas within icecap, purple arrows. Torfajökull is a small ice cap north of Myrsdaljökull in Iceland. The glacier’s lowest elevation is 750 m and the highest elevation is 1150 m. This low of an elevation range in a climate driving higher snowlines places this type of ice cap at great risk for …
November 14, 2016
Hagafellsjokull, Iceland Reflects Langjokull Thinning & Retreat
Landsat comparison of the terminus of Hagafellsjökull from 2000 and 2016. The red arrows are the 2000 terminus, the yellow arrows the 2016 terminus. Purple arrows indicate upglacier thinning. Langjökull is the second largest iceap in Icalnd with an area of over 900 square kilometers. The mass balance of the icecap has been reported since 1997 and his lost over 1 m per year during this period (WGMS, 2016). Pope …
October 26, 2015
Blágnípujökull, Iceland Retreat 1986-2015
Blágnípujökull comparison in Landsat imagery from 1986 and 2014. Blágnípujökull is an outlet glacier on the western side of Hofsjökull. The Iceland Glaciological Society spearheads an annual terminus monitoring program led by Oddur Sigurðsson. This data set enabled an examination of glacier response to climate change in Iceland from 1930-1995 by Tómas Jóhannesson, Icelandic Meteorological Office and Sigurðsson (1998). This illustrated that Hofsjökull glaciers retreated little from 1950 to 1990, but …
February 13, 2015
Eiriksjökull Retreat, Iceland
Eiriksjökull is an ice cap just west of Langjökull In central Iceland. Here we examine its main western outlet the Braekur using Landsat imagery from 1989 to 2014. The Icelandic Glaciological Society website on terminus variations is the source of the map for the glacier. The IGS program monitors 50 glaciers, all of them are currently retreating. Eiriksjökull , is not one that is in this monitoring program. In 1989 the Braekur …
January 27, 2011
Tungnaarjökull Retreat, Iceland
Tungnaarjökull drains the west side of the Vatnojökull Icecap. The glacier begins just west of the Grimsvotn Volcano at 1500 m. Just to the north of this large outlet glacier, 350 square kilometers, is the Loki Volcano. The first image below denotes these volcanoes and the epicenter of recent earthquakes. The volcanic activity is recorded in the dark ash layers that fall on the glacier in the accumulation area and …
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.