The World's Glaciers

[knocker]

Evolution of Ossoue Glacier (French Pyrenees) since the end of the Little Ice Age

 

Abstract. Little is known about the fluctuations of the Pyrenean glaciers. In this study, we reconstructed the evolution of Ossoue Glacier (42°46' N, 0.45 km²), which is located in the central Pyrenees, from the Little Ice Age (LIA) onwards. To do so, length, area, thickness, and mass changes in the glacier were generated from historical data sets, topographical surveys, glaciological measurements (2001–2013), a ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey (2006), and stereoscopic satellite images (2013). The glacier has receded considerably since the end of the LIA, losing 40 % of its length and 60 % of its area. Three periods of marked ice depletion were identified: 1850–1890, 1928–1950, and 1983–2013, as well as two short periods of stabilization: 1890–1894, 1905–1913, and a longer period of slight growth: 1950–1983; these agree with other Pyrenean glacier reconstructions (Maladeta, Coronas, Taillon glaciers). Pyrenean and Alpine glaciers exhibit similar multidecadal variations during the 20th century, with a stable period detected at the end of the 1970s and periods of ice depletion during the 1940s and since the 1980s. Ossoue Glacier fluctuations generally concur with climatic data (air temperature, precipitation, North Atlantic Oscillation, Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation). Geodetic mass balance over 1983–2013 was −1.04 ± 0.06 w.e.a^−1 (−31.3 ± 1.9 m w.e.), whereas glaciological mass balance was −1.45 ± 0.85 m w.e. a^−1 (−17.3 ± 2.9 m w.e.) over 2001–2013, resulting in a doubling of the ablation rate in the last decade. In 2013 the maximum ice thickness was 59 ± 10.3 m. Assuming that the current ablation rate remains constant, Ossoue Glacier will disappear midway through the 21st century.

 

Open Access

 

http://www.the-cryosphere.net/9/1773/2015/tc-9-1773-2015.html

[4wd]

The Disappearing Sea of Ice

 

It doesn't explain how the greater part of the retreat since 1820 occurred before any significant change in CO2, but the continued retreat has to be largely blamed on CO2.

The last part of the video is laced with typical activist mentality and ridicules any possibility of alternative explanations.

That doesn't fit the Netweather guidelines either so I don't see why anyone reading here can't decide for themselves.

[knocker]

Instead of wafting off into your usual activist mentality rhetoric why don't you support the possibility of alternate explanations with some reasoned explanation of other causes of the rise in temperature which is causing the melt in the lower regions of the glacier? Nobody has a problem with that.

For example you could use a study by Eugen Lucian CASPARIAN, THE EVOLUTION OF THE MER DE GLACE GLACIER

 

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CEMQFjAHahUKEwjXi8q8r-nHAhVF1BoKHRqWCcA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcinqcontinents.geo.unibuc.ro%2F1%2F1_2_Casparian.pdf&usg=AFQjCNHaTaOAwOxLRX-ENLd53nzv_ORz_w&sig2=cjlk9qALyCX-gG4daxi9hA&cad=rja

 

Just to add all of the world's leading glaciologists agree that that the vast majority of the world's glaciers are melting, many at an increasing rate in the last couple of decades, and the main driver (not the only one) is AGW. It is stretching credulity a little to think that all of these experts did not consider alternative scenarios.But you are quite at liberty to question this conclusion with a reasonable scientific alternative to which nobody will object.

 

Source. Global Land Measurements from Space, Springer,, 2014.

Edited September 9, 2015 by knocker

[knocker]

Iceland’s glaciers to grow in 2015

http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/nature_and_travel/2015/08/17/iceland_s_glaciers_to_grow_in_2015/

[knocker]

Hess Mountain Glacier Retreat, Yukon

 

In the Selwyn Mountain Range, Yukon at the headwaters of the Hess River is the Hess Mountains and Keele Peake the highest peak in the region. A series of glacier radiate from this region. The Yukon Territory is host to numerous small alpine glaciers that have been rapidly losing area and volume.  From 1958-2007 glaciers lost 22% of their volume in the Yukon (Barrand and Sharp, 2010).  Due to the high snowlines David Atkinson, at University of Victoria notes the rate of retreat has increased since then, and is using weather stations to identify the specific conditions driving the ice loss. Semmes and Ramage (2013 ) observed in the Yukon River Basin from 1988 to 2010 a significant lengthening of melt duration t with earlier melt onset in high elevations  and significant later end of melt refreeze in theintermediate elevations (600 to 1600 m). Here we examine in particular a glacier draining southeast from the Hess Mountains that feeds the Hess River using Landsat imagery from 1986 to 2015.

[knocker]

Glacier dynamics over the last quarter of a century at Jakobshavn Isbræ

 

Abstract. Observations over the past two decades show substantial ice loss associated with the speedup of marine terminating glaciers in Greenland. Here we use a regional 3-D outlet glacier model to simulate the behaviour of Jakobshavn Isbræ (JI) located in west Greenland. Using atmospheric and oceanic forcing we tune our model to reproduce the observed frontal changes of JI during 1990–2014. We identify two major accelerations. The first occurs in 1998, and is triggered by moderate thinning prior to 1998. The second acceleration, which starts in 2003 and peaks in summer 2004, is triggered by the final breakup of the floating tongue, which generates a reduction in buttressing at the JI terminus. This results in further thinning, and as the slope steepens inland, sustained high velocities have been observed at JI over the last decade. As opposed to other regions on the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS), where dynamically induced mass loss has slowed down over recent years, both modelled and observed results for JI suggest a continuation of the acceleration in mass loss. Further, we find that our model is not able to capture the 2012 peak in the observed velocities. Our analysis suggests that the 2012 acceleration of JI is likely the result of an exceptionally long melt season dominated by extreme melt events. Considering that such extreme surface melt events are expected to intensify in the future, our findings suggest that the 21st century projections of the GrIS mass loss and the future sea level rise may be larger than predicted by existing modelling results.

 

http://www.the-cryosphere-discuss.net/9/4865/2015/tcd-9-4865-2015.html

[knocker]

Fraenkel Glacier Retreat, Patagonia, Chile

 

Fraenkel Glacier drains the west side of the Northern Patagonia Ice Cap (NPI) just south of Glaciar San Quintin. The retreat of this glacier in the last 30 years mirrors that of Gualas and Reichert Glacier, which also terminate in an expanding proglacial lake.   Davies and Glasser (2012) work, had an excellent Figure indicating two periods of fastest recession since 1870, are 1975-1986 and 2001-2011 for NPI glaciers.  They noted the loss was 0.07% from 1870-1986, 0.14% annually from 1986-2001 and 0.22% annually from 2001-2011. Willis et al (2011) observed that the thinning rate of NPI glaciers below the equilibrium line has increased substantially from 2000-2012. On Fraenkel Glacier they observed a 2.4 m per year thinning in the ablation zone. Here we examine the changes in this glacier from 1987 to 2015 using Landsat Image.

[knocker]

Acodado Glacier, Chile Rapid Retreat 1987-2015

 

Loriaux and Casassa (2013) examined the expansion of lakes of the Northern Patagonia Ice Cap. From 1945 to 2011 lake area expanded 65%, 66 square kilometers. Rio Acodado has two large glacier termini at its headwater, HPN2 and HPN3. that are fed by the same accumulation zone and comprise the Acodado Glacier. The glacier separates from Steffen Glacier at 900 m. The lakes at the terminus of each were first observed in 1976 and had an area of 2.4 and 5.0 square kilometers in 2011. (Loriaux and Casassa, 2013). Willis et al (2012) noted a 3.5 m loss per year from 2001-2011 in the ablation zone of the Acodado Glacier, they also note annual velocity is less than 300 m/year in the ablation zone. Davies and Glasser (2012) noted that the Acodado Glacier termini, HPN2 and HPN3, had retreated at a steadily increasing rate from 1870 to 2011. Here we examine the substantial changes in Acodado Glacier from 1987 to 2015 using Landsat imagery.

[knocker]

Bionnassay Glacier Terminus Tongue Detaches, Mont Blanc, France

 

 

 

Bionnassay Glacier drains west from Dôme du Goûter and Aiguille de Bionnassay of the Mont Blanc Massif in France. The glacier has a heavily debris covered terminus and has experienced less retreat from 1980-2010 then other Mont Blance glaciers. Bionnassay retreated 200 m (Moreau et al , 2012), while Mer de Glace retreated 500 m in the interval 1998 to 2008. Gardent et al (2014) observed a 25% decline in the area of glaciers in the French Alps from 1970 to 2009, with the rate increasing significantly recently.  Bionnassay is now in rapid retreat as the stagnant terminus tongue is detached from the active glacier tongue.

Edited September 24, 2015 by knocker

[knocker]

Palma Glacier, Alaska Retreat Opens Lake Passage

 

 

An August 1986 and September 2015 Landsat Image of Palma Glacier, 1986 terminus yellow arrow.

Palma Glacier is an unnamed glacier just west of Brady Glacier and Glacier Bay that is the principal glacier draining into Palma Bay.  Here we examined the changes in this glacier from 1986 to 2015 with Landsat Imagery.  The glacier has terminated in a lake at the head of a river draining into Palma Bay at least since the 1950 USGS map was prepared.The neighboring Brady Glacier advanced for much of the 20th century,  its tributary lobes began to retreat after 1970.  The main Brady Glacier terminus did not begin to retreat until 2009 and is poised to begin a rapid retreat as lake development at the terminus continues due to ongoing thinning (Pelto et al, 2013)..

[knocker]

Fingers Glacier, Alaska loses a finger to melting

 

Fingers Glacier flows from the southern end of the Fairweather Range to the coastal plain, where is expands into a segmented piedmont lobe. The southernmost finger is heavily debris covered. In the Mount Fairweather B-4 quadrangle USGS map based on 1951 aerial photographs the glacier has four prominent fingers each eroding its own basin.  Here we examine Landsat imagery to illustrate the changes in this glacier from 1951 to 2015.  From 1950-1980  glacier’s just to the north In Lituya Bay were advancing. The La Perouse Glacier its immediate neighbor to the north was stable. Palma Glacier directly to the southeast has retreated throughout the 1950-2015 period.  Larsen et al (2015) identify that from 1994-2013 this region of Alaska is a significant source of glacier volume loss and hence contributor to sea level rise.  The loss of 75 gigatons per year from glaciers in southern Alaska was determined in this study to be largely from surface melt not from calving losses.  The mass balance of both Taku and Lemon Creek Glacier of the Juneau Icefield have had a notable decline in mean mass balance from 1986-2015 versus the 1951-28985 period (Pelto et al, 2013).  The nearby Brady Glacier also experience a higher snowline (Pelto et al, 2013b) which led to volume losses quantified by Larsen et al (2015).

[knocker]

Yoho Glacier, British Columbia Accumulation Zone Woes

 

 

Yoho Glacier is the largest southern outflow draining the south from the Wapta Icefield in the Kootenay region of British Columbia. It flows 6.5 km from the 3125 m to a terminus at 2200 m. The glacier terminus reach is thin, gently sloping  and uncrevassed poised for continued retreat. An exploration of Mount Balfour in 1898 a party led by Professor Jean Habel with the packer Ralph Edwards as a guide were the first to visit and describe Yoho Glacier. There descriptions of the magnificent Takakkaw Falls down river of the glacier quickly led to it becoming a frequent destination of visitors. The glacier was also accessible. Retreat up a steep slope at 2000 m made actually visiting the glacier difficult in the middle of the 20th century.  The glacier has retreated 2.1 km in the last century leaving a vast area of bare terrain, dotted by several small new alpine lakes. Here we examine changes in the glacier from 1986 to 2015 with Landsat imagery.

[knocker]

Colonia Glacier, Chile Retreat and Periodic Lake Outbursts

 

 

Colonia Glacier drains east from the Northern Patagonia Icefield feeding the Baker River, Chile. It is the largest glacier draining east from the NPI.  A comparison of the 1987  and 2015 images indicate a 2.5 km retreat of the glacier front, development of a large lake and areas of thinning well upglacier at the purple arrows. The recent substantial retreat of Colonia Glacier like Glacier Nef just to its north is posing new hazards. The glacier is unusual in the number of lakes that are adjacent to or feed into the adjacent glacier dammed or proglacial lakes. In the image below Lake A=Arco Lake, Lake B=East Terminal Lake, Lake C=Cachet 1 , Lake D= West terminal Lake, Lake E=Colonia Lake and Lake F=Cachet 2. In the case of Baker River the outburst floods are a threat to the planned hydropower developments as documented by Dusaillant and others (2009).  Hidroaysen Project proposed 5 dams on the Baker and Pascua River generating 2750 MW of power that after initial permit approval in 2011Chile’s Committee of Ministers overturned the environmental permits in 2015.

[knocker]

Engabreen Glacier, Norway Retreat

 

Engabreen is an outlet glacier of the Svartisen ice cap in northern Norway. It has an area of 40 km2. Most of the area lies between 1200 and 1450 m the high plateau of the ice cap. This glacier has been the focus of attention from the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) for over 50 years.

[stewfox]

Its acknowledged of the few glaciers that have been extensively and accurately monitored in the last 100yrs most are declining but there many that are growing.

 

In Antarctica where 90% of the worlds ice is place, increasing temps (more snow) could lead to some marked increases in volume and size. 

 

And yet, the Juneau Icefield, which covers 1,505 square miles (3,900 sq km) and is the fifth-largest ice field in the Western Hemisphere, is also growing.

Interestingly, Pio XI Glacier, the largest glacier in Chile, is also advancing.

And then there are those growing glaciers in the Himalayas.

And on Mt Shasta.

And on Washington’s Mt Baker.

And on Mount St Helens.

The list goes on

Edited October 18, 2015 by stewfox

[Methuselah]

But, Stew: in an unevenly warming world, such as the one we are in, how could one expect anything different?

[knocker]

 

Its acknowledged of the few glaciers that have been extensively and accurately monitored in the last 100yrs most are declining but there many that are growing.

 

In Antarctica where 90% of the worlds ice is place, increasing temps (more snow) could lead to some marked increases in volume and size. 

 

And yet, the Juneau Icefield, which covers 1,505 square miles (3,900 sq km) and is the fifth-largest ice field in the Western Hemisphere, is also growing.

Interestingly, Pio XI Glacier, the largest glacier in Chile, is also advancing.

And then there are those growing glaciers in the Himalayas.

And on Mt Shasta.

And on Washington’s Mt Baker.

And on Mount St Helens.

The list goes on

 

 

Not long ago you stated I was completely wrong in a general comment that I made regarding how the vast majority of the world's glaciers were melting and quoted an unsourced couple of figures to 'prove' your point. I replied with a quite detailed analysis that not only disproved your nonsense but used reliable scientific sources. You are doing it again with this misleading rubbish

 

 

Its acknowledged of the few glaciers that have been extensively and accurately monitored in the last 100yrs most are declining but there many that are growing.

 

A reversal of the few and many would have been more accurate but then you are using a denier web site as your source for information although the individual glaciers quoted as growing is correct as I also mentioned in my earlier post

 

Just consider your source.

 

Robert W. Felix, author of Not by Fire but by Ice and Magnetic Reversals and Evolutionary Leaps, attended the University of Minnesota School of Architecture in the mid-1960s. Upon graduation he traveled throughout the U.S. working with architects and builders from Florida to Colorado to Alaska. In the early 1970s he settled in Tucson, where he designed and built more than 300 custom homes and small office buildings.

 

Well qualified then

 

Further to this

 

Junk science

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/may/10/environment.columnists

 

Why you see fit to post a deliberately misleading post from a qualified nutter and totally ignore the world's leading glaciologists is beyond me and I would have thought totally against the new ethos of the climate area.

Edited October 18, 2015 by knocker

[stewfox]

 

Why you see fit to post deliberately misleading post from a qualified nutter and totally ignore the world's leading glaciologists is beyond me and I would have thought totally against the new ethos of the climate area.

 

Your welcome to google search and find a new glacier that's melting each week and add it here and you may get angry someone else has entered the thread

 

However the thread title  is the 'world glaciers' not 'knockers melting glacier blog' 

 

90% of the worlds glaciers are in Antarctica and Greenland and there is no long term evidence their melting although most studies don't look at these areas as detailed in the SIDC report. There will be far more interest in a Alpine glacier for obvious reasons.

 

https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/glaciers/questions/located.html

 

Point measurements are collected from just a small number of reference glaciers improved satellite observations will help in future decades The IPCC have apologized for glacial mis information and I still feel its a slippery slope to walk on

 

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/jan/20/ipcc-himalayan-glaciers-mistake

 

You can't say 'all the glaciers in the world are melting' there are not many that have been accurately monitored in the last 100 years but if you want to use the thread as your own blog I will leave it alone the correction has been made.

Edited October 18, 2015 by stewfox

[knocker]

Your welcome to google search and find a new glacier that's melting each week and add it here and you may get angry someone else has entered the thread

 

However the thread title  is the 'world glaciers' not 'knockers melting glacier blog'

 

90% of the worlds glaciers are in Antarctica and Greenland and there is no long term evidence their melting although most studies don't look at these areas as detailed in the SIDC report. There will be far more interest in a Alpine glacier for obvious reasons.

 

 

 

You can't say 'all glaciers in the world are melting' there are not many that have been accurately monitored in the last 100 years.

 

You are misquoting your own link which says

 

 

Most of the world's glacial ice is found in Antarctica and Greenland, but glaciers are found on nearly every continent,

 

As for "You can't say 'all glaciers in the world are melting' there are not many that have been accurately monitored in the last 100 years"

 

Nobody is saying.all glaciers are melting but the world's leading glaciologists are saying the majority are and many thousands have been monitored in the satellite era. I can't find my earlier post which contained a lot of detail on this (which you are well aware of as it was a reply to one of your posts) but this from an earlier exchange we had.

 

A guess? I very much doubt it. In the recent satellite years a huge amount of material has been gathered on the world's glaciers resulting in 'GLIMS: Global Land Ice Measurements from Space. Monitoring the World's Changing Glaciers'

 

A 900 page book giving the details of this has also recently been published,. Global Land Ice Measurements from Space. This a comprehensive state-of-the art, technical and interpretive presentation of satellite image data. With 33 chapters and a companion website, the world's foremost experts in satellite image analysis of glaciers analyze the current state and recent and possible future changes of glaciers across the globe and interpret these findings for policy planners.

 

The book sets out the rationale for and history of glacier monitoring and satellite data analysis. It includes a comprehensive set of six "how-to" methodology-type chapters, 25 chapters detailing regional glacier changes, and a summary/interpretive chapter placing the observed glacier changes into a global context of the coupled atmosphere-land-ocean-sun system and the impacts of changing glaciers on water resources, glaciological hazards, and ecological systems.

 

It is a hugely impressive publication.

 

It seems incredible to me that sceptic/deniers continually dismiss stacks of scientific research simply because it contrdicts their ideological dogma. The paucity of intelligent thinking is breathtaking.

 

The website mentioned above.

 

http://www.glims.org/

 

As a matter of interest I don't bother with Google searches looking for melting glaciers but just follow a couple of the world's leading glaciologists. I have absolutely no problem with people posting in the thread but unfortunately most of the world's glaciers are melting. If I get angry it's not that others post in the thread but that they link to nutter denier web sites.

 

The bottom line is that when you say "there are not many that have been accurately monitored in the last 100 years". you are refuting the evidence of the above and the World Glacier Monitoring Service so your statement is based on what?

 

http://wgms.ch/

Edited October 18, 2015 by knocker

[Methuselah]

Your welcome to google search...

You can't say 'all the glaciers in the world are melting' there are not many that have been accurately monitored in the last 100 years but if you want to use the thread as your own blog I will leave it alone the correction has been made.

Can you do a Google-search, yourself:  just who exactly has said that 'all the glaciers in the world are melting'? Apart from you, I mean...

Edited October 18, 2015 by Ed Stone

[stewfox]

Can you do a Google-search, yourself:  just who exactly has said that 'all the glaciers in the world are melting'? Apart from you, I mean...

 

It was Knocker 30/9/2015  glad I could help 

 

""""""""""""whilst the rest of the world's glaciers are busy melting"""".

 

https://forum.netweather.tv/topic/84034-arctic-sea-ice-discussion-2015-2016-the-refreeze/page-2

Edited October 18, 2015 by stewfox

[knocker]

It was Knocker 30/9/2015  glad I could help 

 

""""""""""""whilst the rest of the world's glaciers are busy melting"""".

 

https://forum.netweather.tv/topic/84034-arctic-sea-ice-discussion-2015-2016-the-refreeze/page-2

 

https://forum.netweather.tv/topic/84034-arctic-sea-ice-discussion-2015-2016-the-refreeze/page-2

 

Ah thanks for that, the post I couldn't find.

[Methuselah]

It was Knocker 30/9/2015  glad I could help 

 

""""""""""""whilst the rest of the world's glaciers are busy melting"""".

 

https://forum.netweather.tv/topic/84034-arctic-sea-ice-discussion-2015-2016-the-refreeze/page-2

 

https://forum.netweather.tv/topic/84034-arctic-sea-ice-discussion-2015-2016-the-refreeze/page-2

Which is clearly not the same thing as 'ALL'!

[stewfox]

Which is clearly not the same thing as 'ALL'!

 

 On a par with using the glaciers in the Karakoram range whilst the rest of the world's glaciers are busy melting.

 

v all the glaciers in the world are melting'

 

 Not the same at all 

 

and the SIDC report excludes Greenland and Antarctica for obvious reasons , lets leave it at that

 

ie more observed glaciers are melting then growing 

[knocker]

Stunning photographs of the Aletsch Glacier enjoy it while you can...

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2015/10/19/one-of-europes-mighty-rivers-of-ice-the-aletsch-glacier-could-almost-vanish