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J Cartmill

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North Cascade glaciers Disastrous conditions
« on: August 22, 2015, 01:52:13 PM »

AbruptSLR

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Re: North Cascade glaciers Disastrous conditions
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2015, 11:38:29 PM »
The linked article indicates that the glaciers in the North Cascades, Washington, are experiencing abrupt mass loss this year:

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/science/disastrous-low-snow-heat-eat-away-at-northwest-glaciers/

Extract: "Glaciers across the North Cascades could lose 5 to 10 percent of their volume this year, accelerating decades of steady decline. One scientist estimates the region’s glaciers are smaller than they have been in at least 4,000 years.
In more than three decades of field work, Mauri Pelto has taken the measure of Washington’s glaciers during seasons of record-breaking snow and years that broke skiers’ hearts. But he’s never seen anything like this summer.
“The best word for it is disastrous,” said Pelto, who recently wrapped up his annual survey in the North Cascades."
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
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Eli81

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Re: North Cascade glaciers Disastrous conditions
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2016, 06:22:45 AM »
On the topic of the Cascades...

Timberline Lodge is a ski resort located on Mt Hood here in Oregon - apparently one of the few in the US that offer Summer skiing. I was utterly flabbergasted and floored to learn that due to the poor condition of the snow pack, they decided they would not be dumping some 500 tons of salt on the Palmer Glacier to "condition" it for summer skiing in 2015.

In the sense that, apparently, they have been doing this for the last 30 years...

Complete. Shock. I had no idea. And I bet almost nobody did/does.

It is utterly mind blowing and unacceptable that a private company, LEASING our public land in a cushy long standing arrangement with the Forest Service, can degrade our natural resources like this. In the midst of what amounts to a global glacier crisis, no less.

Our environmental regulators are locked in a catch-22. They have to be able to detect the pollution downriver, to be able to stop it. Of course, by that time the damage is already done..

I heard that India is putting blankets on some of their glaciers, to try and protect them. The US? Salt.

It's the American way.... :'(

budmantis

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Re: North Cascade glaciers Disastrous conditions
« Reply #3 on: June 07, 2016, 01:24:24 AM »
The Europeans are blanketing some of their glaciers to reduce melt as well. Although I'm an American, and a skier, I am totally blown away by the fact that they would dump salt on a glacier to condition it for skiing.

Eli81

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Re: North Cascade glaciers Disastrous conditions
« Reply #4 on: June 07, 2016, 08:08:47 AM »
It angers and shocks me every time I think about it. It's just completely unbelievable....... And it's happening in Oregon, no less. I fear that this is just the tip of the proverbial ice berg as far as environmental atrocities go. They're just not being stopped fast enough, nobody cares or is even aware. Ugh. It just gives you that sinking "We are so, so screwed" feeling....

https://wyeastblog.org/2010/05/25/stop-salting-the-palmer-glacier/

vox_mundi

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Re: North Cascade glaciers Disastrous conditions
« Reply #5 on: August 09, 2019, 07:19:29 PM »
Massive Boulders, Floodwater Rush Down Mount Rainier After Glacial Outburst
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/massive-boulders-floodwater-rush-down-mount-rainier-after-glacial-outburst/



A glacial outburst at about 6:50 p.m. Monday at the Mount Rainier’s South Tahoma Glacier sent debris and boulders as big as pickup trucks flowing down the mountain, said Mount Rainier National Park geologist Scott Beason.

The debris flow registered on seismic monitors and ran for more than 8 miles, Beason said.

Beason suspects warm, sunny weather filled the glacier with melt, rearranged the “internal plumbing” at the glacier’s base, caused water to blast a new channel through the glacier, and then flooded glacial melt into Tahoma Creek.


A glacial blowout on Mount Rainier sent debris as big as a pickup truck flowing for miles.

“The event lasted an hour and had four separate surges,” Beason said of the outburst flooding. “The outlet channel definitely shifted. It picked up a lot of loose material just below the glacier and carried it downstream and mobilized it into a debris flow.”

As the world warms and Mount Rainier’s glaciers thin and retreat over time, these massive debris flows have become a common occurrence on the mountain’s south side. The park is building systems to forecast massive debris flows and send alerts to park staff when they’re triggered, Beason said.


A view of a cavern in the terminus of the South Tahoma Glacier, from where floodwaters burst, carrying debris miles down.

The park has recorded some 32 debris flows along Tahoma Creek. The South Tahoma Glacier that feeds the creek began to retreat in the 1960s, Beason said.
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DrTskoul

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Re: North Cascade glaciers Disastrous conditions
« Reply #6 on: August 09, 2019, 10:19:44 PM »
Wow ! Impressive pictures

Stephan

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Re: North Cascade glaciers Disastrous conditions
« Reply #7 on: August 25, 2019, 10:45:37 PM »
Is that area of the terminus of the South Tahoma Glacier high enough in altitude / cold enough to be in the permafrost zone? If so, a thawing could IMO support sudden outbursts of mud and water.
It is too late just to be concerned about Climate Change

petm

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Re: North Cascade glaciers Disastrous conditions
« Reply #8 on: August 25, 2019, 10:55:12 PM »
Scary! Hopefully no one was hurt -- that's a popular place to hike.

https://robertscribbler.com/2015/08/18/climate-change-is-causing-mt-rainier-to-grumble/
« Last Edit: August 25, 2019, 11:01:38 PM by petm »

Tom_Mazanec

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Re: North Cascade glaciers Disastrous conditions
« Reply #9 on: September 13, 2019, 10:16:25 PM »
Annual Assessment of North Cascades Glaciers Finds ‘Shocking Loss’ of Volume
https://glacierhub.org/2019/09/10/annual-assessment-of-north-cascades-glaciers-finds-shocking-loss-of-volume/
Quote
Here we review preliminary results from each glacier. Each glacier will have a mass balance loss of  1.5 -2.25 m, which drives continued retreat.  Columbia and Rainbow Glacier are reference glaciers for the World Glacier Monitoring Service, with Easton Glacier joining the ranks later this year.

Below and above is the visual summary. Specific mass balance and retreat data will be published here and with WGMS after October 1.

kassy

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Re: North Cascade glaciers Disastrous conditions
« Reply #10 on: April 21, 2022, 09:20:03 AM »
Half the glaciers on these WA mountains have melted — the rest are next, study finds

https://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/national/article260607957.html

Study (OA):


Glaciers of the Olympic Mountains, Washington—The Past and Future 100 Years

Plain Language Summary
The Olympic Mountains in Washington State contain 255 glaciers and perennial snowfields as of 2015. Their total area is 25.34 ± 0.27 km2, about half of the ice-covered area in 1900. Since 1980, yearly glacier area loss averaged −0.59 km2 yr−1 and 35 glaciers and 16 perennial snowfields have disappeared. Warming winter temperatures are particularly important to the glacier shrinkage. Because the Olympic Mountains are close to the Pacific Ocean winters are mild and air temperatures are close to freezing. Warming winters causes more precipitation to fall as rain rather than snow, which does not nourish the glaciers. With warmer summers causing more ice melt and warmer winters causing less snowfall, the glaciers are being hammered in both seasons. Local air temperatures, and therefore the glaciers, are strongly affected by surface temperature of the nearby ocean. The future of these glaciers is dire, modeling using climate projections suggests that the glaciers will largely disappear by 2070.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022JF006670
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kassy

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Re: North Cascade glaciers Disastrous conditions
« Reply #11 on: August 12, 2022, 07:03:42 PM »
Rainier's largest glacier is melting. Here's what that means downstream

Scientists are studying the evolution of Emmons Glacier and its implications on watersheds throughout the Pacific Northwest.

...

Glaciers are essentially slow-moving rivers of ice and snow that hold water like a storage tank. During summer months, their melt flows into streams and rivers. Emmons — the largest glacier in the continental U.S. — is an important freshwater source for the Puget Sound, feeding into the White River that runs along state Route 410. Although Emmons grew in size each winter for decades, its surface is now melting irregularly, which raises questions about flooding and water supply as the climate warms.

More research is needed to understand what the future could bring, as well as climate policy to significantly lower greenhouse gases and slow climate change. The Inflation Recovery Act, recently passed in the U.S. Senate, is aimed in this direction, including a goal to cut carbon emissions by about 40% by 2030 and invest in clean energy sources.

This July, like every summer for the last 14 years, Todd hiked to Emmons to sample water quality and measure debris ranging from boulders of solidified lava to fragments of talus, or alpine rock. Her fieldwork, currently funded by NASA and the University of Washington, allows for sampling that significantly adds to the information gathered through aerial mapping

When it melts, it pours
Todd shares her findings with the National Park Service, the only government entity closely monitoring the glacier and analyzing changes. National Park Service science technician Mike Larrabee and his team from the park service study Emmons’ snowpack and how much of it has melted compared to past years to better track how the glacier feeds the White River. For the last 20 years, nearly 16% of the glacier’s meltwater flowed into the river, which meanders along the northeast side of the mountain and serves as an unofficial border between King and Pierce counties. In low snowpack years, Larrabee’s team measured as little as 7% of the melt flowing into the river.

Like Todd, Larrabee travels on the glacier to take measurements. When setting out stakes for monitoring during the winter of 2014, Larrabee saw something unusual for the winter season: a deep channel in the snow.

“It was like someone had taken a snowplow and just cut through there,” he said. “It was missing snow. The drainage network of the glacier was just spilling out and funneled down into the canyon, almost like a little stream channel.”

At the lower end of the glacier, Larrabee found 64 million gallons of melted snow — enough water to fill 100 Olympic-size swimming pools.

Scientists call this outburst flooding. This happens when glacier ice melts and abruptly releases water, which then flows downstream and temporarily overflows a river.

Those floods are a normal summertime occurrence, but warmer years are increasing the likelihood for bigger ones. In November 2017, park technicians discovered another outburst flood when it tore out and destroyed monitoring equipment at the White River Bridge near a campground.

The surge of water and sediment usually stays within the park during an outburst flood, but huge flows could have impacts farther downstream at the Mud Mountain Dam, which holds back floods before they can reach nearby towns like Enumclaw.

The dam is essential for flooding control, according to Joanna Curran, a civil hydraulics engineer within the Army Corps of Engineers. Mud Mountain was created in the 1940s to manage heavy rain and snowmelt, when glacial outbursts didn’t happen often.

Emmons gets the least amount of sun compared to Mount Rainier’s other 24 major glaciers. However, its growth is largely attributed to insulation from a 1963 rockfall from Little Tahoma Peak — a craggy, snowy wedge that rises 2,000 feet above Emmons.

While layers of that rocky debris can protect the glacier from the sun, thin spots in its covering can also heat up the ice and accelerate melting. As a result, Emmons is retreating more quickly in the middle than its sides, leaving a horseshoe shape in its wake. As it steepens like a canyon, some areas are losing the rocks shading their ice from the sun. One lower section of the glacier shrunk by nearly 300 feet within just four years of shedding its rock cover.

and more:
https://crosscut.com/environment/2022/08/rainiers-largest-glacier-melting-heres-what-means-downstream
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kassy

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Re: North Cascade glaciers Disastrous conditions
« Reply #12 on: January 27, 2023, 04:25:08 PM »
RIP Washington’s Hinman Glacier, gone after thousands of years

The largest glacier between the high peaks of Mount Rainier and Glacier Peak has melted away after a long battle with global warming.

For thousands of years, the Hinman Glacier graced the crest of the Washington Cascades in what is now King County.

Fifty miles due east of downtown Seattle, Mount Hinman sits deep in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, midway between Snoqualmie Pass and Stevens Pass.

Nichols College glaciologist Mauri Pelto led a team to Mount Hinman in August 2022, as he has most summers since 1984. This time, they found its namesake glacier was no more.

In its place were just a few stranded patches of snow and ice.

“This is the biggest North Cascade glacier to completely disappear,” Pelto said. “I've seen a bunch of small glaciers disappear, and to see one of the larger glaciers disappear is more striking.”

Until recently, the Hinman was one of four named glaciers that provided cool water to the Skykomish River in the hottest, driest time of the year.

The glaciers of the Skykomish basin have lost 55% of their surface area since the 1950s, according to Pelto.

“What that means is, you have 55% less of an ice cube there to melt all summer long,” Pelto said.

...

“Once the largest glacier between Mount Rainier and Glacier Peak,” mountain climber and guidebook author Fred Beckey wrote in the 2000 edition of his Cascade Alpine Guide, “the Hinman Glacier has separated into three masses, with a greatly diminished area.”

In 1958, the Hinman Glacier covered 320 acres, about half the size of Seattle’s Lake Union. In August 2022, the biggest patch of ice Pelto’s team found was about 10 acres—too small and too thin to flow, the defining characteristic of the moving ice masses called glaciers.

...

RIP (rest in precipitation), Hinman Glacier.

https://www.kuow.org/stories/rip-washington-s-hinman-glacier-gone-after-thousands-of-years
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kassy

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Re: North Cascade glaciers Disastrous conditions
« Reply #13 on: June 23, 2023, 07:29:17 AM »
A warming climate has melted three glaciers on Mount Rainier, the tallest volcano in the lower 48 states — more evidence of the rapid worldwide decline of mountain ice.

The total mass of glacier ice on Mount Rainier, southeast of Seattle, is less than half what it was in 1896, according to estimates from a National Park Service report published this month. Among its more than two dozen glaciers, the mountain is likely to have lost an area of glacial ice that’s nearly the size of Manhattan. The pace of its losses is picking up, the report found.

“We’re getting to a tipping point on some of the south-facing glaciers. We’re reaching points where there’s really not a lot of ice to be lost,” said an author of the report, Scott Beason, a geologist at Mount Rainier National Park. “The area change is accelerating in the last six years. That’s kind of a big, scary thing.”

details:
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/three-mount-rainiers-glaciers-melted-away-rcna89123
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