The Taku Glacier increased it's mass balance while the others in the Juneau Icefields reduced their mass balance.

To left:  Cumulative annual surface mass balance record of Taku Glacier (red) and Lemon Creek Glacier (blue).

A key measure (click here) of the mass balance of a glacier is the equilibrium line altitude (ELA). Mass balance for non-calving glaciers is the difference between snow accumulation on a glacier and snow and ice loss from the glacier. The ELA is the point at which accumulation equals melting. On temperate alpine glaciers this is the snowline where snow transitions to bare glacier ice. Its elevation at the end of the summer marks the annual ELA. For a glacier to be in equilibrium at least 50-70% of the glacier must be in the accumulation zone still at the end of the summer.

Dr. Maynard Miller (click here) was my mentor. He was an incredibly nice man with a very interesting wife. He taught out of the University of Idaho. Dr. Miller and his entourage of new scientists surveyed the Juneau Icefield every summer for eight weeks.

Once a glaciologist, always a glaciologist. Glaciology is considered the study of geology, because, ice is a rock in it's hardest state. Geology is the science that deals with the earth's physical structure and substance, its history, and the processes that act on it. Geologists are interesting folks. Personal opinion.

To the right (click here): Members of the first JIRP "high ice" expedition to the Juneau Icefield in the summer of 1948. Left to right: Maynard Miller, W. Laurence Miner, Lowell Chamberlain, Melvin G. Marcus, William A. Latady and Anthony W. Thomas. Photo taken at Camp 4 on "Hades Highway," the upper Twin Glaciers' neve. 

Lemon Creek Glacier, Alaska (click here) was chosen as a representative glacier for the 1958 IGY global glacier network.   This choice was based on its sub-arctic latitude and on the ongoing mass balance program of (JIRP) that had begun in 1948 (Miller, 1972; Pelto and Miller, 1990).  JIRP has continued annual balance measurements on Lemon Creek Glacier through the present (Fig. 2).   In 1957 Lemon Creek Glacier was 6.4 km long and had an area of 12.67 km2.  In 1998 the glacier was 5.6 km long and had an area of 11.8 km2 (Marcus et al., 1995).   From the head of the glacier at 1450 m to the mean ELA at 1050-1100 m the glacier flows northward, in the ablation zone the glacier turns westward terminating at 600 m.    The glacier can be divided into four sections: 1) Steep peripheral northern and western margins draining into the main valley portion of the glacier. 2) A low slope (40) upper accumulation zone from 1220 m to 1050 m.  3) A steeper section (60) in the ablation zone as the glacier turns west from 1050-850 m.  4) An icefall (180) leading to the two fingered termini at 600 m.  The maximum thickness exceeding 200 m is 1 km above the icefall (Miller, 1972).  Lemon Creek Glacier has retreated 1200 m since 1948 and 800 m since 1957, and has retreated an average of 10–13 m a-1 between 1998 and 2009  (Pelto et al 2013).