“Going, going … gone? Analyzing glacier change” Detailed instructions for completing the laboratory

Organization of this Lab Activity 1: Analyze media stories on the effect of global warming on glacial retreat in terms of glacial processes Activity 2: Develop your hypothesis Activity 3: Test your hypothesis by gathering data on the Nisqually Glacier Activity 4: Compare Nisqually behavior with other glaciers Activity 5: Predict future change to glaciers

Activity 1: Analyze media stories on the effect of global warming on glacial retreat in terms of glacial processes Many videos you can watch on YouTube: Just search “glacier retreat” Media loves the visuals of glacial retreat…

Activity 1: Analyze media stories on the effect of climate change on glacial retreat in terms of glacial processes You will read media stories

Activity 1: Analyze media stories on the effect of global warming on glacial retreat in terms of glacial processes Then interpret them from the perspective of what you learned in lecture about glacial mass balances

Glaciers and Our Diet

Position of snout (belly) reflects balance of accumulation and ablation

Activity 1: Analyze media stories on the effect of climate change on glacial retreat in terms of glacial processes

Activity 2: Develop your hypothesis Entire Book, The Scientific Nature of Geomorphology ed. by Rhoads & ThornThe Scientific Nature of Geomorphology SODA

Activity 2: Develop your hypothesis Read Hecht & Pelto; what are their hypotheses?

Activity 2: Develop your hypothesis

Activity 3: Test your hypothesis by gathering data on the Nisqually Glacier Background information on the study area Methods used to study glacier change… Task 1. You measure how the length of the Nisqually Glacier changes over time Task 2. Analyzing uncertainty Task 3. Plot your data Task 4. Comparison with atmospheric temperature Task 5. Comparison with other glacier length records

Activity 3: Background on study area

Fly around and two QTVRs

Activity 3: Background on study area Bridge marking previous glacier advance Glacier in various positions “above” bridge

Activity 3: Background on study area

Mt. Rainer through time (courtesy of NPS)

Activity 3: Methods From a Master’s thesis… Lots of techniques… field methods mapping terminus historical photos ground photos maps

Activity 3: Task 1. Measure length of Nisqually Glacier & how changes 1971

Activity 3: Task 1. Measure length of Nisqually Glacier & how changes

Take a string (or ruler). Measure length from the top of Rainier. Then, compare with scale. Then convert km to miles.

Ground Photos require that you look for features on the topographic map that can help you identify location of terminus

Working with ground photos can be difficult and can have low confidence From Mt. Rainer website (photoshopped) Ground photo 1912

Trees… Cliff

Activity 3: Task 2. Analyze Uncertainty

Activity 3: Task 3. Plot your data Already given in data table Need to be graphed

Only connect lines between 4 (high) and 3 (medium confidence) – and leave 2 & 1 unconnected

Example from Glacier X at Mount Rainier

High confidence ~0.1 km (100 m) range Med. confidence ~ km ( m) range Low/VL confidence ~0.5-1 km range (guess) Inform reader: where we’re sure of the data and why…here’s our estimate…we need more research…

Activity 3: Task 4. Compare with temperature records

Example from Glacier X at Mount Rainier

Activity 3: Task 4. Example Glacier length increasing…Global temp record shows temp increasing too… Low confidence for 3 years of data… Note in writing Why? Does this make sense?

Activity 3: Task 4. Compare with temperature records—lots of noise & lots of uncertainty Blue dots = avg. annual temp Trend line

Example from Glacier X at Mount Rainier What do the two graphs tell us? Write-up, noting speculative-ness and low/very low confidence levels, but possibilty…

Activity 3: Task 5. Compare with other glacier length records from Oerlemans

Example from Glacier X at Mount Rainier Different is OK…Glaciers have personalities…may not do what “everyone” else does Use fieldwork & maps & other datasets to help us interpret glacier’s personality

Activity 4: Comparing Nisqually to other Glaciers After scientists conduct research at their study site, most compare results with other locations to discover if their site is an anomaly or reflects a broader trend Sometimes, scientists do this themselves and make a career studying glaciers Sometimes, compare with other published studies

Activity 4: Comparing Nisqually to other glaciers

Activity 4: Comparing Nisqually to other Glaciers

Activity 5: Predict the future 1,000, ,000 10,000 (~1850)

Activity 5: Predict the future WITHOUT anthropogenic influence…

Activity 5: Predict the future Die-out completely, like Kilimanjaro? Advance in another little ice age?

Activity 5: Predict the future

Activity 6: Scavenger hunt: landforms left behind when the glaciers are “all gone”

Erosional Forms

Use GoogleEarth Use Acme Mapper (satellite or topo map) Best to take screen shot, turn into.jpg Grab your image  insert pic to table