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 Glacier
Mass-Balance Trends in Alaska and Climate-Regime Shifts
by D.C. Trabant, R.S. March, and B.W. Kennedy
ABSTRACT
Cumulative net mass-balance trends at Wolverine and Gulkana Glaciers in
Alaska are strongly correlated with the 1976/77 and 1989 interdecadal
climate-regime shifts recognized for the North Pacific. Wolverine Glacier
is a south-facing valley glacier near the southern coast of Alaska on the
Kenai Peninsula in south-central Alaska. Gulkana Glacier is a south-facing
branched valley glacier on the southern flank of the Alaska Range in
interior Alaska, about 350 kilometers northeast of Wolverine Glacier. At
Wolverine Glacier, the negative trend of cumulative net mass balances,
since measurements began in 1965, was replaced by a growth trend (positive
mass balances) during the late 1970's and 1980's. The positive
mass-balance trend was correlated with warmer winters and increased
precipitation at Wolverine Glacier during the 1976/77 to 1989 period. At
Gulkana Glacier, the cumulative net mass-balance trend has been negative
throughout its measurement period, but with rate-change inflection points
that coincide with the interdecadal climate-regime shifts in the North
Pacific. Since 1989, the trends of both glaciers have been an unbroken
series of negative mass balances, at the highest rate in the entire
record. These trends agree with other studies that suggest that the period
since the 1989 Pacific climate-regime shift has been unusual. As the
possibility of another decadal climate-regime change looms, the question
is how the current negative mass-balance trend will change.
Trabant, D.C., March, R.S., and Kennedy, B.W., 1998, Glacier mass-balance trends in
Alaska and climate-regime shifts [abs.]: Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical
Union, v. 79, no. 48, p. F277.
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Maintainer: Rod March
Last update:
Wednesday, January 03, 2007 12:46 PM
URL: http://ak.water.usgs.gov/glaciology/reports/AGU98/AGU98_balance_trend_poster.htm
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