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"The Bering and the Malaspina Glacier systems of south-central Alaska, U.S.A., and southwest Yukon Territory, Canada, in the Saint Elias Mountains constitute the two largest temperate surge-type piedmont glaciers on Earth. This is largest region of glaciers and icefields in continental North America. Determining and understanding the causes of wastage of these two glaciers is important to understanding the linkages of glacier mass balance to climate change, glacier dynamics, and the contributions of the glaciers of northwestern North America to rising sea level. Presented are the first detailed estimate of the net mass balances of the Bering and Malaspina Glacier systems, the effects of glacier dynamics on their accumulation areas, and the wastage of the tidewater glaciers of Icy Bay. The combined wastage of the Bering and Malaspina Glacier systems from 1972 to 2003, 254 ± 16 km3 water equivalent over a glacier area of 7734 km2, is equivalent to an area-average mass balance of -1.06 ± 0.07 m/y over that time period. This represents a contribution to global sea-level rise of 0.70 ± 0.05 mm, 0.023 ± 0.002 mm/yr from 1972 to 2003. This is roughly 0.8% of the modern sea-level rise as estimated from tide-gauges and satellites, and roughly 9% of the contribution from non-polar glaciers and ice caps. Glacier wastage has been caused by climate warming (negative mass balance) superimposed on the effects of glacier dynamics. Near-concurrent surge of the three largest glaciers of the Malaspina Glacier piedmont were observed during 1999 to 2002. In addition, the tidewater Tyndall Glacier, whose retreat since 1910 was interrupted in 1964 by a major surge, also surged during 1999 to 2002. These four surges have occurred roughly 23 years after the 1976/77 shift of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation to its current warm-wet phase. Despite the increase of high-elevation snow accumulation observed on Mt. Logan, the accumulation areas of the Bering and Malaspina Glacier systems are being drawn down by the effects of glacier dynamics. Wastage has accelerated since 2000"--Leaf iii.
Glaciers around the globe are experiencing a notable retreat and thinning, triggered by atmospheric warming. Tidewater glaciers in particular have received much attention, because they have been recognized to contribute substantially to global sea level rise. How-ever, lake calving glaciers in Alaska show increasingly high thinning and retreat rates and are therefore contributors to sea level rise. The number of such lake calving systems is increasing worldwide as land-terminating glaciers retreat into overdeepened basins and form proglacial lakes. Yakutat Glacier in Southeast Alaska is a low elevation lake calving glacier with an accumulation to total area ratio of 0.03. It experienced rapid thinning of 4.43 ± 0.06 m w.e. yr−1 between 2000-2010 and terminus retreat of over 15 km since the beginning of the 20th century. Simultaneously, adjacent Yakutat Icefield land-terminating glaciers thinned at lower but still substantial rates (3.54 ± 0.06 m w.e. yr−1 for the same time period), indicating lake calving dynamics help drive increased mass loss. Yakutat Glacier sustained a ~3 km long floating tongue for over a decade, which started to disintegrate into large tabular icebergs in 2010. Such floating tongues are rarely seen on temperate tidewater glaciers. The floating ice was weakened by surface ablation, which then allowed rifts to form and intersect. Ice velocity from GPS measurements showed that the ice on the floating tongue was moving substantially faster than grounded ice, which was attributed to rift opening between the floating and grounded ice. Temporal variations of rift opening were determined from time-lapse imagery, and correlated well with variations in ice speeds. Larger rift opening rates occurred during and after precipitation or increased melt episodes. Both of these events increased subglacial discharge and could potentially increase the subaqueous currents towards the open lake and thus increase drag on the ice underside. Simultaneously, increased water input may cause lake level in rifts to rise resulting in faster rift propagation and spreading. Similar formation and disintegration of floating tongues are expected to occur in the glacier's future, as the ice divide lies below the current lake level. In addition to calving retreat, Yakutat Glacier is rapidly thinning, which lowers its surface and therefore exposes the ice to warmer air temperatures causing increased thinning. Even under a constant climate, this positive feedback mechanism would force Yakutat Glacier to quickly retreat and mostly disappear. Simulations of future mass loss were run for two scenarios, keeping the current climate and forcing it with a projected warming climate. Results showed that over 95% of the glacier ice will have disappeared by 2120 or 2070 under a constant vs projected climate, respectively. For the first few decades, the glacier will be able to maintain its current thinning rate by retreating and thus losing areas of lowest elevation. However, once higher elevations have thinned substantially, the glacier cannot compensate any more to maintain a constant thinning rate and transfers into an unstable run-away situation. To stop this collapse and transform Yakutat Glacier into equilibrium in its current geometry, air temperatures would have to drop by 1.5 K or precipitation would have to increase by more than 50%. An increase in precipitation alone is unlikely to lead to a stable configuration, due to the very small current accumulation area.
The principles of glacier physics are developed from basic laws in this up-to-date third edition for advanced students and researchers.
The earth’s cryosphere, which includes snow, glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets, ice shelves, sea ice, river and lake ice, and permafrost, contains about 75% of the earth’s fresh water. It exists at almost all latitudes, from the tropics to the poles, and plays a vital role in controlling the global climate system. It also provides direct visible evidence of the effect of climate change, and, therefore, requires proper understanding of its complex dynamics. This encyclopedia mainly focuses on the various aspects of snow, ice and glaciers, but also covers other cryospheric branches, and provides up-to-date information and basic concepts on relevant topics. It includes alphabetically arranged and professionally written, comprehensive and authoritative academic articles by well-known international experts in individual fields. The encyclopedia contains a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from the atmospheric processes responsible for snow formation; transformation of snow to ice and changes in their properties; classification of ice and glaciers and their worldwide distribution; glaciation and ice ages; glacier dynamics; glacier surface and subsurface characteristics; geomorphic processes and landscape formation; hydrology and sedimentary systems; permafrost degradation; hazards caused by cryospheric changes; and trends of glacier retreat on the global scale along with the impact of climate change. This book can serve as a source of reference at the undergraduate and graduate level and help to better understand snow, ice and glaciers. It will also be an indispensable tool containing specialized literature for geologists, geographers, climatologists, hydrologists, and water resources engineers; as well as for those who are engaged in the practice of agricultural and civil engineering, earth sciences, environmental sciences and engineering, ecosystem management, and other relevant subjects.