You are browsing the archive for north cascade glacier retreat Archives - From a Glacier's Perspective.
July 28, 2020
NORTH CASCADE GLACIER CLIMATE PROJECT 2020-37th Annual Field Program
Field season images from 2019 indicating crevasse stratigraphy, annotated by Clara Deck. Director: Mauri S. Pelto, [email protected] College Field Artist & Scientist: Jill Pelto, [email protected] Who we are? NCGCP was founded in 1983 to identify the response of North Cascade glaciers to regional climate change, particularly changes in mass balance, glacier runoff and terminus behavior. NCGCP is a field project that has a broader interdisciplinary scope and examines more glaciers than any …
August 29, 2019
North Cascade Glacier Climate Project 2019, 36th Annual Assessment
The summer of 2019 found the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project in the field for the 36th consecutive summer monitoring the response of North Cascade glaciers to climate change. This long term monitoring program was initiated partly in response to a challenge in 1983 from Stephen Schneider to begin monitoring glacier systems before and as climate change became a dominant variable in their behavior. The field team was comprised …
November 19, 2018
35th Annual Field Observations of North Cascade Glaciers
The 2018 field season observations, conditions and summary. Field team Mariama Dryak, Erin McConnell, Jill Pelto and Mauri Pelto. For the 35th consecutive year I headed to the North Cascade Range, Washington to monitor the response of glaciers to climate change. Two of the glaciers the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project (NCGCP) monitors are now part of the 42 glaciers comprising the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) reference glacier network, …
October 3, 2017
34th Annual, 2017 North Cascade Glacier Climate Project Field Season
2017 Field Season Video For the thirty fourth consecutive summer we headed into the field to monitor the continued response of North Cascade glaciers to climate change. In 1984 when I began this program we selected 10 key glaciers to monitor. Two of these have now disappeared. All the glaciers have retreated extensively and lost considerable volume. The mass balance loss is 19 m of water equivalent thickness, which is over …
August 1, 2017
34th Annual Field Program NORTH CASCADE GLACIER CLIMATE PROJECT 2017
2016 Field Season Video NORTH CASCADE GLACIER CLIMATE PROJECT 2017 For the thirty fourth consecutive summer it is time to head into the field to monitor the continued response of North Cascade glaciers to climate change. In 1984 when I began this program we selected 10 key glaciers to monitor. Two of these have now disappeared. All the glaciers have retreated extensively and lost considerable volume. The mass balance …
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 …
February 16, 2015
Chickamin Glacier Retreat, North Cascade Range, Washington
Chickamin Glacier covers the north slope of Sinister Peak in the North Cascade Range of Washington. The glacier has a valley tongue that descends to an outwash plain. Here we examine retreat of the glacier from 1979 to 2012. The glacier had advanced from 1955-1975, before commencing retreat. Chickamin Glacier (John Scurlock 2004 Aerial shot, https://pbase.com/nolock/image/49374401) USGS Map of Chickamin Glacier In 1979 the glacier terminus was at the pink …
September 21, 2014
Boston Glacier Retreat, North Cascade Range, Washington
Boston Glacier is the largest glacier in the North Cascades with an area of just over 6 square kilometers. The is a steep, wide slope glacier that currently lacks any type of main terminus tongue or valley section. The glacier is extraordinarily heavily crevassed this is due a steep slope, a smooth hard bedrock basal slope and high accumulation rates. In 1986 the first time I stepped onto this glacier …
August 31, 2014
North Cascade Glacier Climate Project 2014 Field Season (31st Annual) Preliminary Results
The 2014 Glacier Field season was our 31st consecutive year working on North Cascade glaciers. After a late winter surge of snowfall, the North Cascades had a slightly above average snowpack as the melt season began in early May. The warm, dry summer to date, could end up being the warmest for the region, currently 2013 was the warmest melt season. The result is glacier melt has been high overall. …
October 27, 2013
Chocolate Glacier Retreat, Glacier Peak, Washington
From 1994-1997 we ran a four year project to survey the terminus response of all the glaciers on Glacier Peak, Washington to climate change. This was a century after a climb in the region by C.E. Rusk. Chocolate Glacier is the largest of the east side valley glaciers. The average retreat of Glacier Peak glaciers from the LIA to the 1958 positions was 1640 m. Richard Hubley noted that North …
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.