A tour of 55 glaciers in the North Cascades with data on behavior and photographs of changes and links to further information. The google earth imagery in the region is not the best for illustrating many of the observed changes. We look forward to updating this when better imagery is available. All of the glacier are observed in the field by the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project which observes more glaciers than any other in North America. There are three primary files, the main file is in this post. In the posts below there is a file on glaciers that have been lost and a file on the Whitechuck Glacier which has lost 85% of its area in the last 125 years.

Great collection and photos. And a link about Ice Worms!!! My only knowledge of them was from Robert Service , and I was sure they were fictional.

LINK to a Seattle Times article about ice worms.

Quote:

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"Yet all is clear as you draw near � for coyly peeking out

Are hosts and hosts of tiny worms, each indigo of snout

And as no nourishment they find, to keep themselves alive

They masticate each other's tails, till just the Tough survive."

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Robert Service - "The Ballad of the Ice-Worm Cocktail"

Yes the ice worms are interesting but not that important overall. I have spent alot of time collecting them for various studies. I am working on a tour that illustrates glaciers where they have been found. Ice worm distribution file

Nice overview of your research. You cannot complain when you have to do this work for a living, although it is sad to see the glaciers disappear. Are you also involved in impact studies downstream in the watersheds?

I monitor changes in streamflow downstream of the glaciers, but not the impacts on the rivers. That would be nice but is just too much too tackle both. The main observed changes thus far is an increase in winter streamflow due to more winter melt and rain events and less summer runoff as snowmelt occurs earlier and glacier area available for melting declines.

A sampling of glaciers lost. The aerial photographs are from the USGS and positioned using GPSVisualizor.com. This website makes correct positioning of overlays very easy, Thanks to Adam Schnieder.

Here is a file illustrating the retreat of the Whitechuck Glacier. This glacier is the headwaters of the Whitechuck River and has lost 85% of its area in the last 125 years. This file has several images of the glacier a vertical photograph overlay, a topographic map overlay, and three paths showing the margin at different times. The changes in this glacier have altered the summer flow of the Whitechuck River.

I have added a file showing the recent retreat of glaciers in Olympic National Park, just across Puget Sound from the North Cascades. All of the glaciers observed today in the Olympic mountains are retreating.

The new historical imagery allows a nice look at glacier change through time for example Boston Glacier (48 30 51 N, 121 02 10 w)has three images over the last 15 years. The last image shows the entire loss of the terminus tongue of the glacier. The glacier is still very active, crevassed and not in danger of disappearing with present climate. Another example is Lyman glacier with imagery from 1998 and 2006, with a 90 m retreat. The terminus margins are known for this glacier for many points in time from the Little Ice Age to present, average retreat rate has been 11 m/year. At its current length of 440 m this does not give the glacier long to survive. To survive a glacier must have a persistent accumulation zone. If it does not the glacier will shrink and receded in the former accumulation zone at the head of the glacier survival forecasts Disequilibrium
Below is Lyman Glacier in 1921 and 2005 from approximately the same location.