From a Glacier's Perspective

July 28, 2016

Sater Glacier, Alaska Not Retaining Snowcover

2012 Google Earth Image. Purple arrows indicate areas where the margin is receding well above the lowest terminus. Sater Glacier is in the Okpilak River watershed of the Brooks Range, Alaska. It is named for John Sater an early geologist working in the Brooks Range and on the nearby McCall Glacier. Here we examine Landsat imagery from 1987-2016 to identify changes in the glacier. Matt Nolan, U. Alaska-Fairbanks, has provided links to the …

December 3, 2012

Fork Glacier Retreat and Separation, Brooks Range, Alaska

The Romanzof Mountains in the Brooks Range of Alaska has numerous small alpine glaciers. This is an area that has seen some of the greatest warming of anywhere over the last 30 years. In this post we focus on Fork Glacier which is just northwest of Okpilak Glacier. The glaciers in this region have been undergoing significant thinning and mass loss (Delcourt et al, 2008) including on McCall Glacier, Okpilak …

April 22, 2012

Romanzof Glacier Retreat. Brooks Range, Alaska

In the Romanzof Mts. Brooks Range, Alaska McCall Glacier and Okpilak Glacier have been the main focus of research. These glaciers are much smaller than glaciers in southern Alaska, as the region has much more limited amounts of snowfall. The University of Alaska-Fairbanks have focused on McCall Glacier average rate of thinning increased between 1956–93 and 1993–2002, averaging 0.4 m/year for the entire period. The primary region of thinning was …

June 25, 2010

Okpilak Glacier Retreat, Brooks Range, Alaska

The Brooks Range of Alaska contains many alpine glaciers. You hear little about them as there are no large ones and none that can be seen from a cruise ship as in southern Alaska. Though I have worked on many Alaskan glaciers for extended periods, it has always been in southeast Alaska on the larger Juneau Icefield. Hey one month until my 30th field season. The climate is much different …