The Incredible Shrinking Glacier

I think that climate change is a real phenomenon. Most of the recent credible scientific evidence  supports this. I know of several glaciers that have been regularly measured over the last several to many decades in the North Cascades and most of them have been shrinking. I have also seen the evidence with my own eyes when I have traveled near glaciers. New large lakes in barren soil where the maps indicate that glaciers existed. Below existing glaciers there are large expanses of scoured bedrock, barren of any life and still shiny from being polished by ice and grit that just recently melted away.

I also happen to think that one of the main drivers of climate change is human activity. There might still be some debate as to the degree that human activity is responsible for climate change but the one thing that has been constant in the roughly 200 years since the start of the industrial revolution has been the release of carbon, mostly in the form of carbon dioxide, that has been stored underground for tens or hundreds of millions of years. This has been done on a scale that is pretty much unfathomable (billions of tons? Trillions of tons?). Common sense says that has to affect something. 

I also acknowledge that the activity that results in this release of carbon makes my life possible. I am looking at some information from Puget Sound Energy, our power supplier and it says that 32 percent of the electricity that they supply is generated from coal and another 16 percent from natural gas which is much cleaner than coal but far from perfect. Therefore, at least part of the power that allows me to sit at this computer and write these words and that runs all of the labor saving appliances in this house, and lights the house, as well as the power for life saving services like hospitals probably sometimes comes from a coal fired power plant.

I also think that there will be a number of problems with solar and wind power that won’t become apparent until these technologies are scaled up to serve large populations. There will always be trade offs. So, I don’t have any magical solutions to our power problems other than it is not helpful to scapegoat the people who provide us with the power that makes our modern lives possible. Criticize constructively or try to find a better way to do things but not scapegoating. We all use power, or at least most of us do.

Where this all ties into this blog post is one of my favorite places. I have been here more times than any other in the mountains. For as long as the almost thirty years that I have been visiting this place, a large rock or sub summit of this mountain has acted as a heat sink for sunlight in the summertime and the increased heat radiated from this rock has melted a large cornice into the ice of the glacier leading to the main summit.

The last several times I have visited this place the edge of the cornice wasn’t as sharp and well defined as it used to be. I think this is probably because the glacier has shrunk to a point where it is further from the large rock so there isn’t as much ice and snow to leave a crisp edge. From the way things seem to be trending, it sounds like soon there might not even be a glacier on that mountain, maybe in my lifetime and certainly in my children’s lifetimes.

Of course, one must also remember that there was likely more snow and ice in my grandpa’s time. So, in my grandpa’s day that cornice that I like so much might not have even melted out yet. On an interesting note, my grandpa and great uncle ran a trap line through the watersheds just northwest of the mountain (one even drains the northwest side of the mountain) around the turn of the last century. There is a story passed down through my dad that one year (I want to say 1903 but can't be exactly sure on the date) the winter was so warm that their pelts were essentially worthless because the animals didn't quit shedding all winter. Of course, as the climate scientists say again and again, one year or one event doesn't make a trend. So, though it was extra warm that year, it was probably much colder in the following years, leading up to the start of today's warming trend where year after year it gets warmer and warmer. 

Somewhere in the Glacier Peak Wilderness summer 2008. Note the cornice on the main glacier leading to the summit. This is created by the large rock or sub-summit in front of it i.e. between the viewer and the summit. This rock absorbs heat from sunlight and radiates it back towards the glacier, causing the snow and ice to melt and form the cornice. 

Some spot as previous photo, summer 1997. Note the edge of the cornice is much sharper and the glacier appears to have more of hump i.e. the line formed by the edge of the cornice is convex in shape.  

Same spot as previous photos, summer 2011. This photo shows a good contrast from the previous photo. Note the glacier appears smaller and the edge of the cornice is much less sharp. Also the line formed by the edge of the cornice now appears flat or even slightly concave. 

Somewhere in the Glacier Peak Wilderness summer 1997. 

Same place as photo above, summer 2011. 

Somewhere in the Glacier Peak Wilderness summer 1996. This photo was taken from a point about 1000 feet higher in elevation than the previous photos. This and the following photo show a change in the cornice. 

Summer 2011. This photo is from a vantage point several hundred feet higher than the previous photo. The angle is a little different from the previous photo but the difference in the shape of the cornice is obvious between the two years. The interesting thing about this photo is that the lake in the foreground was not melted out and it was pretty late in the year. The lake was completely or almost completely melted out when the previous photo was taken in the summer of 1996. 

Summer 2011. Same mountain, different angle.

Summer 2011.

Summer 2011. 

Summer 2008. 

Summer 2008. Sunset.

Summer 2008. The first several times I saw the lake in the foreground it was beautiful opaque azure color from glacial flour. On this trip, I had hoped to get some photos of the mountain with a clear blue sky behind reflected on the azure water. However, on this trip and on several others I have made since then, the lake has been the green color evident in this photo. The green color is also the result of glacial flour. I don't know if this change in color has to do with different rates of glacial melt or whether I just happened to be there at the wrong time of year. 

Somewhere in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, summer 2010. The other side of the mountain. 

Somewhere in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, summer 2010. 

Somewhere in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, summer 2010. 

Somewhere in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, summer 2010. 

Somewhere in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, summer 2010. 

Somewhere in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, summer 2010. 

Somewhere in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, summer 2010.

Sauk Mountain from State Route 20 Winter 2013-14. Note the darker areas on the mountain just right of center frame and between the rocks and timberline. The dark patches are caused by brush, probably tag alder (Alnus sinuata) and/or vine maple (Acer circinatum).  I always look at this part of the mountain in the spring in order to gauge how the snow melt is going. This is the area that shows the first effects of the snow melt as the brush melts out  from under the snow, creating the dark patches. In most years, at this time of year this area would be solid white but, as you can see, it isn't. It hasn't snowed enough to bury the brush. Of course, one should remember that one year doesn't make a trend. There were similar low snow years in the 1970's. But one should also note that recently, the long term trends show that temperatures have been higher. The months following this photo, February and March were some of the wettest on record and the snowpack went to 100% of "normal" or more. The interesting thing about Sauk Mountain is that the brush patches I mention above never got completely covered even though the snowpack just above them was about normal.