glacier peak glacier melting – From a Glaciers Perspective

Vista Glacier in 1998 and 2016 Digital Globe images with the the 1984 terminus red arrow and 2015 terminus yellow arrow, Point A is the rock seen below the glacier in 1994 image below and Point B is where the advance moraine reached the valley bottom.

Vista Glacier is a valley glacier flowing down the northeast side of Glacier Peak (Dakobed) that drains into the Suiattle River. The glacier begins at 2475 m beneath Kennedy Peak. We examined all of the glaciers around Glacier Peak in detail from 1993-1997 to document their changes since first closely observed by C.E. Rusk 100 years earlier. The glacier during the LIA joined the Ermine Glacier and extended down to 1345 m. By 1900 when Asahel Curtis photographed this glacier it had retreated 1300 m. By 1946 the glacier had retreated 1900 m from its LIA moraine, separated from Ermine Glacier and terminated at ~1900 m. In 1955 the glacier began a slow advance, all major Glacier Peak glaciers advanced during this period, that had ended by 1975 with a total advance of 105 m (Pelto and Hedlund, 2001).

Vista Glacier in 1988 aerial image illustrating the glacier is still adjacent to advance moraine.

In 1985 at our first visit the glacier was again retreating, total retreat was 10-20 meters from the advance moraine. By 1994 the glacier had retreated 90-100 m with the lower part of the glacier thin and crevassed. By 1997 the glacier had retreated beyond the 1946 position. The retreat accelerated after 2003 and had retreated and by 2016 the retreat from the 1984 mapped position was 410 m, a rate of ~13 m/year. The terminus is now at 1900 m.

In 1994 Cliff Hedlund and I were surveying the terminus when we found a beautiful ice cave beneath the glacier, see below. The rock just behind Cliff in the cave is apparent now out in the open in the Digital Globe image from 2016 and the LIDAR image from 2015 (Point A). Cliff was ahead of his time with the homemade neon colored gear that is perfect in an ice cave.

The red arrow in the image below looking down glacier in 1997 indicates the ice surface level in 1985, the glacier has thinned 20 meters in this region. Measuring snow depth up the middle of this glacier in 1994 and 1997 we found limited areas with accumulation of greater than 2 m in early August. This glacier is prone to losing most of its snow cover in many years such as occurred 2005, 2009, 2015 and 2019. Overall. This indicates considerable retreat will occur even with present climate. From 2013-2020 the end of summer snowline avearaged 2350 m, leaving just 35% of the glacier in the accumulatioin zone each year. To have an equilibrium balance North Cascade glaciers need an AAR of at least 55%, the percentage of glacier in accumulation zone (Pelto and Brown, 2012). We will back in the field this coming summer for the 38th consecutive year measuring the response of North Cascade glaciers to climate change.

1984 USGS Map of Vista Glacier and 2015 LIDAR (WA DNR) of Vista Glacier. Red line is the 1984 terminus and yellow line the 2015 terminus location. Note lack of crevasses in lower half of glacier.

Terminus change map of Vista Glacier from 1984-2015.

Cliff Hedlund in subglacial tunnel leading to Rock A in 1994.

View across lower half of glacier in 1997 towards Ermine Glacier indicating limited crevassing and flow of this thin section of the glacier

Vista Glacier in 2006 with the blue dots indicating the margin and resulting moraines emplaced by the advance from the 1950’s into the 1970’s.

At the turn of the century C.E. Rusk explored the glaciers around Glacier Peak that were retreating from their Little Ice Age maximum in the mid-19th century. The average retreat of Glacier Peak glaciers from the LIA to the 1958 map positions was 1640 m. From 1950-1955 Richard Hubley, University of Washington, completed the first aerial glacier surveys of North Cascade termini, noting the beginning of an advance on Glacier Peak that continued up through 1979. All ten glaciers on the slopes of Glacier Peak advanced ranged from 75 to 500 m and culminated in 1978. All 11 Glacier Peak glaciers that advanced during the 1950-1979 period emplaced identifiable maximum advance terminal moraines. A picture of the glacier from R.Luce during this advance shows a glacier with a strongly convex profile. During the 1993-1997 period the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project (NCGCP) surveyed the glaciers around the peak each summer, one century after C.E. Rusk did (Pelto and Hedlund, 2001). By 1984, all the Glacier Peak glaciers were again retreating. This peak even in summer provided some tough weather, including a 1995 August snow storm. Two other glaciers that were a focus of this study around Glacier Peak were Milk Lake, Vista and Honeycomb Glacier.

This post focuses on Kennedy Glacier which is the main glacier draining the west side of the Peak, left glacier in image below. Kennedy and Scimitar Glacier were joined during the LIA descending the Kennedy Creek valley to an elevation of 1315 m. Retreat from the LIA maximum of 1000 m had occurred by the turn of the century. By 1946 the glacier had retreated an additional 700 m to an elevation of 1960 m. In 1952 the glacier was advancing rapidly, as indicated by the 1955 photograph from Richard Hubley of the glacier from 1955. This advance continued up until 1975, the terminus having extended downslope 320 m to terminate at an altitude of 1785 m. By 1984 the terminus had begun to retreat. In 1994 the terminus had retreated 95 m and by 1997 151 m. A view of the terminus in 1993 indicates an active, crevassed terminus tongue, top image. In 1994 (miidle) and 1997 (below) the terminus is a well established vegetation and sediment line marking the 1970’s advance, burgundy arrows. The glacier has continued to retreat, in the 2006 and 2009 Google Earth imagery the orange line is the 1978 terminus, green line 1994, blue line 2006 and red line 2009. The left hand glacier is Kennedy the right hand Scimitar.. The glacier is continuing too retreat, but each summer retains significant accumulation, as evident in the crevasse measurements of snow depths on the upper Kennedy Glacier at 2800 meters. This indicates a glacier that can retreat to a new point of equilibrium with current climate.