You are browsing the archive for british columbia glacier melt Archives - From a Glacier's Perspective.
December 9, 2021
Swanson River Glaciers Retreat: Two Very Bad Summers in 2018 & 2019
Swanson River glaciers, British Columbia in Landsat images from 1984 and 2019. EM=East Meade Glacier, CG=Canning, red arrows=1984 terminus, yellow arrow=2019 terminus, purple dots=snowline. Points 1-8 are specific glacier locations with very limited to no retained snowcover. The Swanson River feeds into Tagish Lake in NW British Columbia. The watershed is host to dozens of glaciers. Here we exaine the retreat of the two largest glaciers in the watershed from …
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 …
October 6, 2017
Klinaklini Glacier, British Columbia Retreat Generates Large Icebergs
Klinaklini Glacier comparison in Landsat images from 1987 and 2017. Red arrow 1987 terminus, yellow arrow 2017 terminus and snowline at purple dots. Klinaklini Glacier is the largest glacier in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia between Vancouver and Prince Rupert. The glaier drains west and south from Mt. Silverthrone. There is significant accumulation area above 2500 m and the glacier terminates at 300 m. GLIMS noted the area in …
April 12, 2017
Beautiful British Columbia Land of Many Mountains & Dwindling Glaciers
British Columbia is host to many mountain ranges; Purcell, Monashee, Bugaboo, Selkirk, Cariboo, Coat Range, Kootenay, Kwadacha are just some of the diverse mountain ranges that host glaciers and span climate zone. A shared characteristic today regardless of climate zone or mountain range is dwindling glacier size and volume. Bolch et al (2010) found that from 1985-2005 Alberta glaciers lost 25% of their area and BC glaciers 11% of their …
March 17, 2017
Bridge Glacier Terminus Collapse, BC, 4 km retreat 1985-2016
Bridge Glacier comparison in 1985 and 2016 Landsat Images. Red arrow is the 1985 terminus, yellow arrow the 2016 terminus and purple arrows indicate locations where tributaries have separated between the two dates. Bridge Glacier is an 17 km long outlet glacier of the Lillooet Icefield in British Columbia. The glacier ends in a rapidly expanding glacial lake and had an observed retreat rate of 30 m per year from …
October 11, 2016
Shatter & Shudder Glacier Retreat, British Columbia Lakes Form
Red arrow is the 1985 terminus location and yellow arrow the 2016 terminus location. Note the formatiion of new lakes at end of both glaciers. Purple dots is the transient snowline in August of each year. Shatter and Shudder Glacier are at the eastern end of the Spearhead Range in Garibaldi Provincial Park, British Columbia. Osborn et al (2007) mapped the Little Ice Age extent of the glaciers compared to …
September 22, 2016
Porcupine Glacier, BC 1.2km2 Calving Event Marks Rapid Retreat
Landsat images from Sept. 2015 and Sept. 2016. Red arrow is the 1988 terminus and the yellow arrow the 2016 terminus. I marks an icefall location and point A marks the large iceberg. Porcupine Glacier is a 20 km long outlet glacier of an icefield in the Hoodoo Mountains of Northern British Columbia that terminates in an expanding proglacial lake. During 2016 the glacier had a 1.2 square kilometer iceberg …
November 17, 2015
Cummins Glacier Fragmentation, British Columbia
Comparison of the Cummins Glacier from 1986 to 2015. Purple arrows indicate upglacier thinning and disconnection. Red arrow indicates 1986 terminus position. Note the lack of snowcover in 2015. The Cummins Glacier is part of the Clemenceau Icefield Group in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia. The Cummins Glacier via the Cummins River feeds the 430 square kilometer Kinbasket Lake, on the Columbia River. The lake is impounded by the 5,946 MW Mica …
May 28, 2014
Kwadacha Provincial Park Glacier retreat, British Columbia
Kwadacha Wilderness Provincial Park in Northern British Columbia is host to numerous glaciers. Here we focus on an unnamed glacier that drains north into the Kechika River, which joins the Laird River. This glacier straddles both a watershed divide. The map of the glacier indicates the three separate termini of this glacier. Bolch et al (2010) noted that this area of BC lost 15% of its glacier area from 1985 …
November 27, 2013
Nass Peak Glacier Retreat, Coast Mountains, British Columbia
“Nass Peak” Glacier is a 5 km long unnamed valley glacier that feeds Coast Mountain Creek and then Nass River. The closest community is Kitsault, BC on the north side of the small icefield from which the glacier originates. Here we examine changes in the is glacier in Landsat imagery from 1986 to 2013. In 1986 the glacier terminated at the red arrow, this is also approximately the mapped terminus …
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.