Slide 1:
Hi Everyone, I’ll be covering Sperry Glacier in Glacier National Park as my site location for the Dynamic Geologic Setting Project.
Location:
The Sperry Glacier is located in northwest Montana within Glacier National Park. The image on the left gives you some context with respect to the regional location. It is a small cirque glacier of about .8 square km and an average depth of 35 meters on the North slope of gunsight mountain. The area and depth are steadily decreasing however. Since the start of the 20th century Sperry Glacier has lost 78% of its mass. It is one of the remaining 25 glaciers in the park, which had an estimated 150 glaciers when the park was established in 1910.
Sperry Glacier was added as one of the USGS’s …show more content…
However, we are now in a period where the two might be considered one in the same given that the vast majority of scientists now agree that human activities are actively changing the climate and warming the planet.
As the planet warms due to these human activities, mountain glaciers around the world are shrinking. One study’s model predicts that if the climactic temperature in Glacier National Park rises 2 degrees C over the next century, only a fraction of a percent of Sperry Glacier will remain. A worst case scenario model predicts the Glacier would be completely melted in 18 years if warming trends continue at the present rate, the ablation rate at the terminus of 2 m/yr is applied to the entire glacier, and there is no accumulation.
The impacts of shrinking glaciers include sea level rise, decreasing ocean salinity, and alterations to global air and water movement due to changes in heat transfer. These changes result mainly from the melting of very large glaciers. For smaller, inland glaciers like my glacier of focus, Sperry Glacier, in Glacier National Park, accelerated melting has also been observed, but the impacts are more localized. Glaciers can provide excellent data on historical climates, climate trends, and pollution. Sperry glacier is being carefully observed by the USGS to track its melt …show more content…
Unfortunately, as glaciers melt, these records are lost. Because the layers of ice closest to the surface melt first, some of the most interesting and relevant data regarding the glacier’s recent history is lost first. Depending on the size of the glacier, volume of melt, and composition of deposited materials, ice melt can impact the downstream chemistry of lakes and mountain landscapes. These impacts have inherently high variability and have not yet been well
Hi Everyone, I’ll be covering Sperry Glacier in Glacier National Park as my site location for the Dynamic Geologic Setting Project.
Location:
The Sperry Glacier is located in northwest Montana within Glacier National Park. The image on the left gives you some context with respect to the regional location. It is a small cirque glacier of about .8 square km and an average depth of 35 meters on the North slope of gunsight mountain. The area and depth are steadily decreasing however. Since the start of the 20th century Sperry Glacier has lost 78% of its mass. It is one of the remaining 25 glaciers in the park, which had an estimated 150 glaciers when the park was established in 1910.
Sperry Glacier was added as one of the USGS’s …show more content…
However, we are now in a period where the two might be considered one in the same given that the vast majority of scientists now agree that human activities are actively changing the climate and warming the planet.
As the planet warms due to these human activities, mountain glaciers around the world are shrinking. One study’s model predicts that if the climactic temperature in Glacier National Park rises 2 degrees C over the next century, only a fraction of a percent of Sperry Glacier will remain. A worst case scenario model predicts the Glacier would be completely melted in 18 years if warming trends continue at the present rate, the ablation rate at the terminus of 2 m/yr is applied to the entire glacier, and there is no accumulation.
The impacts of shrinking glaciers include sea level rise, decreasing ocean salinity, and alterations to global air and water movement due to changes in heat transfer. These changes result mainly from the melting of very large glaciers. For smaller, inland glaciers like my glacier of focus, Sperry Glacier, in Glacier National Park, accelerated melting has also been observed, but the impacts are more localized. Glaciers can provide excellent data on historical climates, climate trends, and pollution. Sperry glacier is being carefully observed by the USGS to track its melt …show more content…
Unfortunately, as glaciers melt, these records are lost. Because the layers of ice closest to the surface melt first, some of the most interesting and relevant data regarding the glacier’s recent history is lost first. Depending on the size of the glacier, volume of melt, and composition of deposited materials, ice melt can impact the downstream chemistry of lakes and mountain landscapes. These impacts have inherently high variability and have not yet been well