The World's Glaciers

[knocker]

I've thought for some time it might be beneficial to have a separate thread for the worlds glaciers. I'll kick it off.

 

Global Glacier Changes: facts and figures

 

http://www.grid.unep.ch/glaciers/

[knocker]

Reichert Glacier Rapid Retreat, Northern Patagonia Icefield, Chile

 

Reichert Glacier (Reicher) is at the northwest corner of the North Patagonia Icefield (NPI) and flows west from the Mont Saint Valentin region and ends in the expanding Reicher Lake. Rivera et al (2007) notes that the glacier was named for French geologist Federico Reichert, but that Reicher has ended up as the established spelling. They further note that the glacier lost 4.2 square kilometers of area from 1979 to 2001 and had an ELA of 1330 m. The glacier has two main icefalls, one at the first bend in the glacier above the terminus at 400 m, the second at the ELA from 1100-1600 m. Davies and Glasser (2012) identify the most rapid area loss of -0.77% per year to the 1986-2001 period. The glacier retreated rapidly from 1987-1997, but the terminus was stabilized from 1997-2001, before retreating again to near the 2014 terminus by 2002

 

http://glacierchange.wordpress.com/2014/03/16/reichert-glacier-rapid-retreat-northern-patagonia-icefield-chile/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[knocker]

Glaciers will melt faster than ever and loss could be irreversible warn scientists

 

Canada's Arctic Archipelago glaciers will melt faster than ever in the next few centuries. Scientists have shown that 20 percent of the Canadian Arctic glaciers may have disappeared by the end of this century which would amount to an additional sea level rise of 3.5 centimeters.

 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130307145453.htm

 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/grl.50214/abstract

[knocker]

This site looks interesting but haven't had time to look closely as yet. Bust finding out some details of Monty visiting the fleet in Penzance in 1949!

 

http://www.antarcticglaciers.org/

[knocker]

Building a 30-year Glacier Mass Balance Time Series

 

 

 

http://glacierchange.wordpress.com/2013/12/05/building-a-30-year-glacier-mass-balance-time-series/#comment-3240

 

Edited March 17, 2014 by knocker

[4wd]

So is this going to be another doom thread of anything that can be found about retreating ice.I know they aren't all retreating, furthermore glacier balance is complex and certainly not a very good indicator of warming ( I guess you started this as an additional drip-feed warming propaganda theme thread).

In some cases warming can increase precipitation causing an increase in mass or speeding up of flow plus extension.Colder dry periods can make them shrink, as less material is being added further up.Like many other warming examples it should be noted that not much notice was taken of glaciers until Victorian times, which coincided with many glaciers having undergone dramatic increase during the little ice age.For example at Chamonix which I know quite well, parts of the town were threatened by encroaching ice tumbling from Mont Blan - where previously there was forest and pasture.It is also thought that during Roman times, the Alps had far less ice than now.

[Devonian]

So is this going to be another doom thread of anything that can be found about retreating ice.

...

(I guess you started this as an additional drip-feed warming propaganda theme thread). 

 

Please don't further derail this thread.

 

Thanks.

[knocker]

So is this going to be another doom thread of anything that can be found about retreating ice.

I know they aren't all retreating, furthermore glacier balance is complex and certainly not a very good indicator of warming ( I guess you started this as an additional drip-feed warming propaganda theme thread).

 

You really are so predictable ridiculous. I started it because it's a subject that is fascinating, and important, and one that I thought may be of interest. It's got nothing to do with your "drip-feed warming propaganda" nonsense you appear to find lurking around every corner.

 

The fact that not all glaciers are retreating is covered in the world glacier report by the way.

 

And

 

State of Himalayan glaciers less alarming than feared

 

Ever since the false prognoses of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Himalayan glaciers have been a focus of public and scientific debate. The gaps in our knowledge of glaciers in the Himalayan region have hindered accurate statements and prognoses. An international team of researchers headed by glaciologists from the University of Zurich and with the involvement of scientists from Geneva now outlines the current state of knowledge of glaciers in the Himalayas in a study published in Science. The scientists confirm that the shrinkage scenarios for Himalayan glaciers published in the last IPCC report were exaggerated.

 

Glacier area 20 percent smaller than assumed

 

The most up-to-date mappings so far based on satellite data revealed that glaciers in the Himalayas and Karakoram cover a total area of approximately 40,800 km². While this is around twenty times larger than all glaciers of the European Alps put together, it is as much as twenty percent smaller than was previously assumed. Lead scientist Tobias Bolch, who researches at the University of Zurich and Dresden University of Technology, mainly puts this down to erroneous mappings in earlier studies.

 

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-04/uoz-soh041912.php

Edited March 17, 2014 by knocker

[knocker]

Time lapse video Helheim glacier calves ice mountains

 

[knocker]

The Frozen Truth about Glaciers, Climate Change and Our Future

 

Lewis Owen has been scraping out icy fragments of history's truth from one of the most glaciated regions on Earth for the past 25 years

 

His frequent excursions to Tibet and the Himalayas have led the University of Cincinnati professor of geology to some cold, hard facts.

Owen knows climate change is immortal – fluctuating across millennia, patiently building toward moments when circumstances are ripe for apocalypse. It was true thousands of years ago, when rapid climate change had profound effects on landscapes and the creatures that lived on them. That scenario could be true again, if the past is ignored.

"We're interested in how glaciers change over time as climate has changed, because we're in a changing climate at the moment, dominantly because of increased human activity," Owen says. "From understanding past glacial changes, we can understand how glaciers may change in the future."

 

http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.aspx?id=19478

[knocker]

Petermann on the move

 

This ‘interferogram’ shows Petermann Glacier grinding towards the sea along the northwestern coast of Greenland. Two Radarsat-2 TOPS images acquired 24 days apart were used to generate it. Radarsat-2 was programmed specially by MDA to work in an experimental imaging mode called Terrain Observation by Progressive Scans (TOPS) in azimuth  to match the way ESA’s Sentinel-1 will image Earth.

 

Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry – or InSAR – is a technique where two or more satellite radar images acquired over the same area are combined to detect large-scale surface changes. Small changes on the ground cause changes in the radar signal phase and lead to rainbow-coloured fringes in the interferogram.

 

This image shows some stationary and relatively slowly moving features, as well as some large areas of much faster moving ice. The interferometric fringes are widely spaced in the stationary areas and closer together in the centre of the glacier where the ice is moving much faster.

 

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-1/Prepping_for_radar_vision

Edited March 18, 2014 by knocker

[Gray-Wolf]

And why bother about this glacier? Well the 'grounding line' is fast approaching the 'lip' that would allow the warm, Atlantic waters, to flood the inland basin, underlying the ice sheet, beyond.

 

We have a recent 'doubling time', for melt levels, of ten years but this does not include any catastrophic events (due to basin flooding and basal erosion/ice sheet collapse) in their calcs?

Edited March 18, 2014 by Gray-Wolf

[knocker]

Glaciers in Western Canada still receding despite cold, snow

 

CANMORE — Despite cold and snowy winters for the past few years, scientists say it hasn’t helped to slow the retreat of the glaciers in Western Canada.

 

Experts from Natural Resources Canada and several universities monitor annual fluctuations of glaciers in the western and northern Cordillera, which includes the iconic icefields in the Rocky Mountains.

 

http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/Glaciers%20Western%20Canada%20still%20receding%20despite%20cold%20snow/9624012/story.html

Edited March 19, 2014 by knocker

[knocker]

Recent retreat of major outlet glaciers on Novaya Zemlya, Russian Arctic, influenced by fjord geometry and sea-ice conditions

 

Abstract:

Substantial ice loss has occurred in the Russian High Arctic during the past decade, predominantly on Novaya Zemlya, yet the region has been studied relatively little. Consequently, the factors forcing mass loss and the relative contribution of ice dynamics versus surface melt are poorly understood. Here we evaluate the influence of atmospheric/oceanic forcing and variations in fjord width on the behaviour of 38 glaciers on the northern ice cap, Novaya Zemlya. We compare retreat rates on land- versus marine-terminating outlets and on the Kara versus Barents Sea coasts. Between 1992 and 2010, 90% of the study glaciers retreated and retreat rates were an order of magnitude higher for marine-terminating outlets (52.1 m a^–1) than for land-terminating glaciers (4.8 m a^–1). We identify a post-2000 acceleration in marine-terminating glacier retreat, which corresponded closely to changes in sea-ice concentrations. Retreat rates were higher on the Barents Sea coast, which we partly attribute to lower sea-ice concentrations, but varied dramatically between individual glaciers. We use empirical data to categorize changes in along-flow fjord width, and demonstrate a significant relationship between fjord width variability and retreat rate. Results suggest that variations in fjord width exert a major influence on glacier retreat.

 

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/igsoc/jog/2014/00000060/00000219/art00015?utm_content=buffer8405d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

[knocker]

New study shows major increase in West Antarctic glacial loss

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Six massive glaciers in West Antarctica are moving faster than they did 40 years ago, causing more ice to discharge into the ocean and global sea level to rise, according to new research.

 

http://news.agu.org/press-release/new-study-shows-major-increase-in-west-antarctic-glacial-loss/

[knocker]

[knocker]

Science Graphic of the Week: Radar Reveals Massive Antarctic Ice Retreat

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/03/ice-radar-grawk/

[knocker]

Khatling Glacier Retreat, Uttarakhand, India

 

Khatling Bamak (Glacier) is the headwaters of the Bhilangana River in Uttarakhand, India. The Bhilangana River flows into the Tehri Reservoir(2400 MW), that along with the Bhilangana River’s three small hydropower projects (50 MW), make these glaciers key contributors to regional hydropower. The glacier was formerly joined with the Ratangrian Glacier as indicated by the map, but the two have separated with the Ratangrian Glacier now terminating 1.7 km upvalley of this former connection. The 10 km long glacier is fed by several mountain peaks including Jaonli over 6000 m. The lower section of the glacier is debris covered.

 

http://glacierchange.wordpress.com/2014/03/30/khatling-glacier-retreat-uttarakhand-india/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[knocker]

Island time

 

Latest glacier calving near Palmer Station reveals another separate land area

 

It’s the latest sign of climate change in one of the most rapidly warming regions on the planet, where the average temperature has increased between 2 and 3 degrees Celsius in the last 60 years.

 

 

The Marr Ice Piedmont – ice covering a coastal strip of low-lying land backed by mountains – glacier has retreated more than 300 meters since 1975, according to Glenn Grant, research associate at Palmer Station. The glacier was once a short walk behind Palmer Station.

 

http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=3003

Edited March 30, 2014 by knocker

[knocker]

Dartmouth-led study shows air temperature influenced African glacial movements

 

Dartmouth scientists' African, South American results show past temperature's effect on tropical glaciers

 

Changes in air temperature, not precipitation, drove the expansion and contraction of glaciers in Africa's Rwenzori Mountains at the height of the last ice age, according to a Dartmouth-led study funded by the National Geographic Society and the National Science Foundation.

 

The results – along with a recent Dartmouth-led study that found air temperature also likely influenced the fluctuating size of South America's Quelccaya Ice Cap over the past millennium -- support many scientists' suspicions that today's tropical glaciers are rapidly shrinking primarily because of a warming climate rather than declining snowfall or other factors. The two studies will help scientists to understand the natural variability of past climate and to predict tropical glaciers' response to future global warming.

 

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-04/dc-dss041614.php

Edited April 16, 2014 by knocker

[knocker]

A data set of worldwide glacier length fluctuations

 

Abstract. Glacier fluctuations contribute to variations in sea level and historical glacier length fluctuations are natural indicators of past climate change. To study these subjects, long-term information of glacier change is needed. In this paper we present a data set of global long-term glacier length fluctuations. The data set is a compilation of available information on changes in glacier length worldwide, including both measured and reconstructed glacier length fluctuations. All 471 length series start before 1950 and cover at least four decades. The longest record starts in 1535, but the majority of time series start after 1850. The number of available records decreases again after 1962. The data set has global coverage including records from all continents. However, the Canadian Arctic is not represented in the data set. The available glacier length series show relatively small fluctuations until the mid-19th century, followed by a global retreat. The retreat was strongest in the first half of the 20th century, although large variability in the length change of the different glaciers is observed. During the 20th century, calving glaciers retreated more than land-terminating glaciers, but their relative length change was approximately equal. Besides calving, the glacier slope is the most important glacier property determining length change: steep glaciers have retreated less than glaciers with a gentle slope.

 

http://www.the-cryosphere.net/8/659/2014/tc-8-659-2014.pdf

[knocker]

Portillon Glacier, French Pyrenees- Retreating and Disappearing

 

Portillon Glacier is in the Luchon-Bagneres region of the French Pyrenees, just north of the border with Spain. This currently small, and becoming smaller glacier drains into Lac du Portillon, which has a dam impounding it for hydroelectric generation. Like the nearby Aneto Glacier, Portillon Glacier has been thinning, retreating and separating. First a comparison of photographs from 1900 and 2013. In 1900 the glacier fills most of the cirque and nearly reaches the shore of the lake. The lake level is lower at this time also. By 2013 the glacier occupies a few small niches near the head of the cirque.

 

http://glacierchange.wordpress.com/2014/04/22/portillon-glacier-french-pyrenees-retreating-and-disappearing/

[knocker]

Nooksack River Glacier Runoff Importance

 

If glaciers did not change in response to climate, we would not have to think about their role in water resources in the watersheds that they reside. During the last two years in an ongoing study with the Nooksack Indian Tribe we have been working on quantifying the role glaciers play in that watershed. Glaciers comprise the headwaters of the Nooksack River and are a critical source of summer discharge and greatly influence summer stream temperatures. There are nine species of salmon in the watershed that the Nooksack Indian Tribe depends on for cultural, subsistence, and economic uses. Climate change is an additional new threat to salmon that has caused and will continue to cause an increase in winter flow, decreased summer baseflow, and increased summer water temperatures.

 

http://glacierchange.wordpress.com/2014/05/06/nooksack-river-glacier-runoff-importance/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[knocker]

International team maps nearly 200,000 global glaciers in quest for sea rise answers

 

Glaciologists have mapped virtually all of the world's glaciers -- including their locations and sizes -- allowing for calculations of their volumes and ongoing contributions to global sea rise as the world warms.

 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140506120246.htm

[stewfox]

International team maps nearly 200,000 global glaciers in quest for sea rise answers

 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140506120246.htm

 

 

Greenland and Antarctica are effectively 'deserts' at present I wonder if they 'warmed' the increasing snow fall in the interior would off set any sea level rises.

 

"""The new estimates are less than some previous estimates, and in total they are less than 1 percent of the amount of water stored in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, which collectively contain slightly more than 200 feet, or 63 meters, of sea rise""".