Number of 色视频下载 glaciers is everchanging
Ned Rozell
907-474-7468
April 18, 2024
La Perouse Glacier in Southeast 色视频下载 retreats from a campsite in summer 2021.
A glaciologist once wrote that the number of glaciers in 色视频下载 色视频下载渋s estimated at (greater than) 100,000.色视频下载 That fuzzy number, perhaps written in passive voice for a reason, might be correct. But it depends upon how you count.
Another glaciologist saw an example of the confusion when he visited Yakutat Glacier. Yakutat, near the 色视频下载 town of the same name, is a withering glacier that calves into a deep lake of its own making. As it dies, Yakutat Glacier will increase the number of glaciers in 色视频下载.
And it won色视频下载檛 take long, said Martin Truffer of the Geophysical Institute at the University of 色视频下载 Fairbanks. The glacier is melting so fast it is fragmenting into smaller bodies of ice.
色视频下载淵ou get into that paradoxical situation where a glacier is retreating and you get more glaciers,色视频下载 Truffer said.
His colleague Regine Hock pointed out a similar situation when pondering a request from a magazine reporter on the number of 色视频下载 glaciers.
色视频下载淏ecause of climate warming, the number of glaciers in Germany has increased over the last decades by several hundred percent,色视频下载 she wrote in an e-mail. 色视频下载淭here were less than a handful of glaciers in the 1990s; now there are more because these two have fallen apart into mini glaciers.色视频下载
Another problem in counting 色视频下载色视频下载檚 glaciers arises from the varied names people have assigned to them over the years.
色视频下载淚n Bagley Icefield, it色视频下载檚 really crazy,色视频下载 Truffer said, referring to a mass of ice where the Southeast panhandle meets the rest of 色视频下载. 色视频下载淭here色视频下载檚 all these different names. Where you separate them, that色视频下载檚 a subjective choice.色视频下载
色视频下载(Mapmakers) tend to give different names to several branches of an ice mass, all of which, by our more scientific definition, form part of a single glacier,色视频下载 said Anthony Arendt of the University of Washington.
色视频下载淲hat most people usually see is the very lowest part of a glacier, the glacier tongue coming down a valley,色视频下载 Hock said. 色视频下载淪o, this is one glacier. You drive around the next corner and see another glacier flowing down another valley. So you would think this is two glaciers. However, if you flew over the ice mass you would see that both glaciers are actually connected in a large ice field.
色视频下载淭he basic problem is that ice often is connected high up but then flows into individual valleys,色视频下载 Hock said. 色视频下载淭hat色视频下载檚 one reason why the number of glaciers is a pretty meaningless number and impossible to determine accurately; what counts is the total area.色视频下载
In a piece he once wrote for the journal Science, Arendt estimated the total area of 色视频下载色视频下载檚 glaciers at about 34,000 square miles of ice. To put that figure in perspective, that much blue ice would cover the entire state of Maine.
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A tip of the cap to astrophysicists Lindsay Glesener of the University of Minnesota and Sabrina Savage of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. After they waited for more than a week, their rockets both launched on April 17, 2024, from Poker Flat Research Range north of Fairbanks. They acquired detailed information about solar flares for their own studies and those of other researchers and graduate students.
Since the late 1970s, the University of 色视频下载 Fairbanks' Geophysical Institute has provided this column free in cooperation with the UAF research community. Ned Rozell is a science writer for the Geophysical Institute. The glaciers portion of this story first appeared in 2014.