The records of that transect went into a permanent record of the icefields that are part of the USA. The program was partly funded by NASA to propagate young scientists and accumulate the records of the icefields.
The program’s success (click here) lies partly in its approach to education - learning from Nature, in Nature. This is also the key point of the Emersonian Triangle. In his 1837 oration, The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson enunciated three primary influences on scholarly development and effectiveness: Nature, Books, and Action. He proposed that Nature is the ultimate arbiter of truth, the source from which knowledge is obtained. Books are the transcript of our accumulated knowledge of Nature. And he believed Action is required of the scholar to investigate Nature, thereby adding to the body of knowledge.
In 2004, the Juneau icefields were primarily losing "mass balance." The terminus (the most distal end of the glacier) of the Lambert Glacier was sadly reduced and it could be easily noted visually by the mound of rock in the lake where it once pushed in front of that leading edge.
However, the Taku Glacier was growing in mass balance. It was accumulating larger and larger amounts of snow that would over time become glacial ice. The snow a glacier receives is called recharge. The Taku Glacier was receiving far more snow than the rest of the icefield, but, why? Why would a glacier higher in elevation than the others and certainly far higher in elevation than the Lambert Glacier be receiving more recharge? That is counter to what normally occurs.
Normally, the higher in elevation a glacier is the less snow it receives and the less the recharge is to the glacier itself. It is plenty cold at those higher elevations, so what's the deal?
One of the reasons is that Taku was a tidewater glacier (click here). Tidewater glaciers have their own unique cycles of melting and retreating and then recharging to establish a longer profile and a terminus that leads to where meltwater will run. The Taku glacier was also not in touch with the North Pacific which was warming. It's terminus was in relatively cold water all the time. But, that is just the terminus, right? What about the rest of the glacier?
The Taku Glacier was receiving far larger amounts of snow than the other glaciers. Why? Because the snowfall was moving up in elevation. The lower elevations were seeing far less snow. Why? Because the air was warming.
The Juneau Icefields are what is considered "Temperate Glaciers."
A temperate glacier (click here) (as opposed to a polar glacier) is a glacier that’s essentially at the melting point, so liquid water coexists with glacier ice. A small change in temperature can have a major impact on temperate glacier melting, area, and volume. Temperate glaciers exist on the continents of North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, on both islands of New Zealand, and on the island of Irian Jaya. Additionally, some of the glaciers of the Antarctic Peninsula and some of Greenland’s southern outlet glaciers are temperate.
Juneau can be seen on the map and the icefields are just north of Juneau and easily discerned here. So what? So, What? So, what?
My, my. The oceans have a profound effect on the climate of Earth. Icefields situated that close to a warming ocean will definitely show signs of a changing climate. They will show signs profoundly. That is why I went to Juneau. I wanted to know first hand if indeed these glaciers were ailing. Were they declining, stable or increasing.
What was discovered year after year is that the Taku Glacier was increasing in mass balance and all the other glaciers were decreasing. Taku was receiving the benefits of a warming climate because the snow was falling at far higher altitudes/elevations, adding to Taku's snow accumulation and it's increase in ice volume. Taku was not a sign that the climate was stable or improving, it solidly provided year after year, Earth was in trouble with a warming Pacific Ocean and air temperatures from melting ice that could not mitigate the heat.
See, glaciers MITIGATE any heat increases of Earth, no different than hurricanes. Earth has interesting methods of physics to maintain a living atmosphere with Greenhouse Gases making it possible in the first place. The increase in GHG was causing an imbalance in Earth's ability to mitigate its climate and continue it's benevolence.
It should be alarming to everyone that Taku is showing the signs of deterioration/melting. It means Taku can no longer mitigate the heat and is succumbing to it. This is the loudest canary in the coal mine this planet ever had.
