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

2. 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

3. 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: http://youtube.com/watch?v=UGclsV3JuAQ http://youtube.com/watch?v=Pem4fpMwkSQ http://youtube.com/watch?v=7MXazI568Bs Just search “glacier retreat” Media loves the visuals of glacial retreat…

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

6. 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

7. Glaciers and Our Diet

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

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

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

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

12. Activity 2: Develop your hypothesis

14. 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

15. Activity 3: Background on study area

16. Fly around and two QTVRs

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

18. Activity 3: Background on study area

19. Mt. Rainer through time (courtesy of NPS)

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

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

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

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

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

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

30. Trees… Cliff

32. Activity 3: Task 2. Analyze Uncertainty

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

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

35. Example from Glacier X at Mount Rainier

36. High confidence ~0.1 km (100 m) range Med. confidence ~0.2-0.3 km (200- 300 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…

37. Activity 3: Task 4. Compare with temperature records

38. Example from Glacier X at Mount Rainier

39. 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?

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

41. 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…

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

43. 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

44. 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

45. Activity 4: Comparing Nisqually to other glaciers

47. Activity 4: Comparing Nisqually to other Glaciers

48. Activity 5: Predict the future 1,000,000 100,000 10,000 (~1850)

49. Activity 5: Predict the future WITHOUT anthropogenic influence…

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

51. Activity 5: Predict the future

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

54. Erosional Forms

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