| Title | Decadal-centenary glacier mass changes and their variability, Jasper National Park of Canada, Alberta, including the Columbia Icefield region |
| Download | Downloads |
| |
| Licence | Please note the adoption of the Open Government Licence - Canada
supersedes any previous licences. |
| Author | Demuth, M N; Horne, G |
| Source | Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 8229, 2017, 25 pages, https://doi.org/10.4095/304236  Open Access |
| Links | Erratum
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| Year | 2017 |
| Publisher | Natural Resources Canada |
| Document | open file |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | digital; on-line |
| File format | pdf (Adobe® Reader®); docx |
| Province | Alberta |
| NTS | 83C/02c; 83C/02d; 83C/02e; 83C/02f; 83C/03; 83C/04; 83C/05; 83C/06; 83C/07c; 83C/07d; 83C/07e; 83C/07f; 83C/10c; 83C/10d; 83C/10e; 83C/10f; 83C/10g; 83C/11; 83C/12; 83C/13; 83C/14; 83C/15b; 83C/15c; 83C/15d;
83C/15e; 83C/15f; 83C/15g; 83D/01; 83D/08; 83D/09; 83D/10; 83D/11e; 83D/11f; 83D/11g; 83D/11h; 83D/12f; 83D/12g; 83D/12h; 83D/13a; 83D/13b; 83D/13c; 83D/13f; 83D/13g; 83D/13h; 83D/14; 83D/15; 83D/16; 83E/01; 83E/02; 83E/03; 83E/04a; 83E/04b; 83E/04c;
83E/04f; 83E/04g; 83E/04h; 83E/05a; 83E/05b; 83E/05c; 83E/05f; 83E/05g; 83E/05h; 83E/06; 83E/07; 83E/08; 83F/04; 83F/05 |
| Area | Jasper National Park; Columbia Icefield |
| Lat/Long WENS | -119.6417 -116.3583 53.5833 52.0000 |
| Subjects | surficial geology/geomorphology; hydrogeology; environmental geology; Nature and Environment; glaciers; icefields; glaciology; ice conditions; climate effects; geodesy; glacier surveys; Columbia
Glacier; Stuttfield Glacier; Athabasca Glacier; Boundary Glacier; Saskatchewan Glacier; Climate change; monitoring; Phanerozoic; Cenozoic; Quaternary |
| Illustrations | photographs; block diagrams; satellite images; digital elevation models; schematic representations; profiles; graphs; geoscientific sketch maps; location maps; tables; time series |
| Program | Climate Change Geoscience Essential Climate Variable Monitoring |
| Program | Parks Canada, Funding Program |
| Program | NSERC Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of
Canada |
| Released | 2017 08 30; 2018 03 07 |
| Abstract | (Summary)
Geological Survey of Canada Open File 8229 presents an analysis of recently documented glacier volume and longitudinal profile changes to illustrate the decadal-centenary variability
of mass change for a broad sample of study glaciers in Jasper National Park including those in the Columbia Icefield region. The results generally reflect large-scale regional glacier mass balance variability observed since the mid-20th century
though, notably, the study glaciers are undergoing negative annual mass changes at a rate equal to or greater than thrice that of their long-term annualized centenary value (i.e., since c. 1841). While the general pattern of glacier mass loss since
the mid-20th century appears to be influenced, in part, by shifts in the regime of the Pacific North American circulation pattern, it is noted that for the study glaciers and for other glaciers in southwestern Canada, the northwest Pacific and
globally, mass change values over the last several decades and into early 21st century are exhibiting higher variability including several instances of record mass gains.
This is an important result because glacier fluctuations and climate change
are nearly always discussed by non-specialists in terms of the archetypal less glacier mass = warmer climate; and while this paradigm is true at the scale of climate cycles, Ice Ages and the glacial and interglacial periods within them, a more
variable state of glacier nourishment, wastage and melt under the influences of a more variable, non-stationary climate system - a finger print of human-induced climate change - within the response times of typical mountain glaciers (order 1-100 a),
will have implications on assessing their role on the functioning and health of related ecosystems.
Under fiscal pressures, many monitoring-based scientific efforts are being asked to reduce their measurement networks both spatially and even
temporally. Under climatic conditions that manifest increasing variability in the functioning of related systems at multiple scales, it is prudent to do quite the opposite by building observing partnerships and thereby increasing observing system
density and measurement frequency. Such an effort can be fortified, in part, by developing novel approaches to observing and interpretation as detailed herein. |
| Summary | (Plain Language Summary, not published)
This Geological Survey of Canada Open File publication presents an analysis of recently documented glacier volume and longitudinal profile changes to
illustrate the decadal-centenary variability of mass for a broad sample of study glaciers in Jasper National Park including those in the Columbia Icefield region. The results generally reflect large-scale regional glacier mass balance variability
observed since the mid-20th century - namely, the study glaciers are undergoing negative annual mass changes at a rate equal to or greater than thrice that of their long-term centenary value (since c. 1841). While the general pattern of glacier mass
loss since the mid-20th century appears to be influenced, in part, by shifts in the regime of the Pacific North American circulation pattern, it is noted that for the study glaciers and for other glaciers in southwestern Canada, the northwest Pacific
and globally, mass change values over the last several decades and into early 21st century are exhibiting higher variability including several instances of record mass gains. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 304236 |
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