There we go!
Finally!
I have to admit when I'm out on the glacier and we're carrying all the gear
and we're at high elevation and you're working really hard
I definitely ask myself whether I really want to be doing this
But you look at the scenery and
there's really no other place that I would rather be at that moment
The logistical issues with monitoring these glaciers are about the toughest part
of this
Getting to them safely and back safely
requires an awful lot of work and so we depend on having
staff at Mount Rainier and at North Cascades.
There are several reasons we monitor these glaciers
They're habitat for certain species and they're part of the alpine food web
They're a tremendous indicator of climate change. But probably the most important
reason we monitor them is because of the water
These glaciers provide a substantial amount of water during the summer
that fuels the hydroelectric industry in the North Cascades.
The glaciers are also providing a
considerable amount of meltwater to our rivers and lakes
and so they provide what we call buffering capacity
in the summer when we get very little rain these
glaciers continue to provide water and buffer our lakes and streams from the
summer drought or droughts over a longer period. So we're connected to the lake and
the aquatic monitoring as well as providing this overall
weather and climate information.
So in the spring when we come out and we are placing the ablation stakes, we
rely on this steam drill. Which, the inside is basically like a camping stove
We have a propane tank. We fill it with water. We heat up the water and it
produces steam
You know the pressure builds inside. We release the pressure and then we have a
13 meter hose
that the steam comes out of that we drill directly into the glacier.
We drill 13 meters and we place the ablation stake down in the glacier
And then we can come back and watch it melt off that stake.
We monitor glaciers by visiting them at least twice a year. And the idea is that
we want to measure how much snow the glaciers accumulate
on their surface in the winter and then by melting stakes into the glacier in
the spring
we can monitor how much of that snow and ice beneath it melts through the summer.
Our observations have indicated that the glaciers in the North
Cascades have
decreased about 50 percent in area in the last century or so.
So we've been studying the two glaciers
Nisqually and Emmons at Rainier since 2002 and every year there's been a net loss
I think it's been about one to two meters of water equivalent lost
throughout the whole glacier. Which ends up being billions of gallons
of water
If the public could actually see the measurements that we are seeing
And see the glacier and how it changes every year and the amount that sometimes looks like
it's falling apart or the snow field looks like it's actually rotting
It just becomes much more real, the impact that climate change could have.
Monitoring glaciers is important because they're giving us a
really dramatic measure of the climate change and the global disruption that we're seeing
in climate right now
That has been really important for
for reaching the public and helping them understand this global
climate change that's occurring