An Overview of Selected Glaciers in Glacier Bay

Lawson, Daniel

In general, tidewater and terrestrial glaciers in the Park have been thinning and slowly receding over the last several decades. Reduced snowfall in their ice-field sources and warmer temperatures during winter, coupled with an apparent reduction in cloud cover and precipitation during the summer, are the probable causes of this trend. Johns Hopkins Glacier is currently the only advancing tidewater glacier on the eastern side of the Fairweather Range, while the LaPerouse Glacier draining from the western side of the Fairweather Range continues to have a relatively stable tidewater margin, being the only glacier in North America that calves periodically directly into the Pacific Ocean. In addition glaciers within Lituya Bay continue to show advance. Currently, Dan Lawson (CRREL) is conducting long-term glaciological research on present and past glacial activity, as well as climate during the past and present glacial periods. In addition, John Field and Suzanne Brown are periodically conducting photographic surveys of the ice margins, continuing surveys that were initiated by W.O. Field in 1927. In 2003, Bruce Molnia (USGS) and Hal Pranger (NPS) conducted a pilot project on glacier monitoring in the Park.