extensive deformations of rock slopes in southern coast mountains southwest british columbia canada extensive deformations of mountain slopes occur in crystalline intrusive rocks in the southern coast mountains of british columbia typical morphological evidence of slope movement includes extensive systems of tension cracks grabens and antislope scarps collectively referred to here as linears these landforms involve displacements along penetrative joints observed in surface exposures kinematic tests on rock structural data indicate that the observed patterns of linears are generally consistent with the feasible gravitational movements along the dominant discontinuities most sites indicate sliding as the most likely initial mode of movement followed by or accompanied by toppling and toppling induced sliding movements and do not support the view that linears are the traces of active faults

a review of catastrophic drainage of moraine dammed lakes in british columbia abstract moraine dammed lakes are common in the high mountains of british columbia most of these lakes formed when valley and cirque glaciers retreated from advanced positions achieved during the little ice age many moraine dams in british columbia are susceptible to failure because they are steep sided have relatively low width to height ratios comprise loose poorly sorted sediment and may contain ice cores or interstitial ice in addition the lakes commonly are bordered by steep slopes that are prone to snow and ice avalanches and rockfalls moraine dams generally fail by overtopping and incision the triggering event may be a heavy rainstorm or an avalanche or rockfall that generates waves that overtop the dam the dam can also be overtopped by an influx of water caused by sudden drainage of an upstream ice dammed lake jokulhlaup melting of moraine ice cores and piping are other possible failure mechanisms failures of moraine dams in british columbia produce destructive floods orders of magnitude larger than normal streamflows most outburst floods are characterized by an exponential increase in discharge followed by an abrupt drop to background levels when the water supply is exhausted peak discharges are controlled by dam characteristics the volume of water in the reservoir failure mechanisms and downstream topography and sediment availability for the same potential energy at the dam site floods from moraine dammed lakes have higher peak discharges than floods from glacier dammed lakes the floodwaters may mobilize large amounts of sediment as they travel down steep valleys producing highly mobile debris flows such flows have larger discharges and greater destructive impact than the floods from which they form moraine dam failures in british columbia and elsewhere are most frequent following extended periods of cool climate when large lateral and end moraines are built a period of protracted warming is required to trap lakes behind moraines and create conditions that lead to dam failure this sequence of events occurred only a few times during the holocene epoch most notably during the last several centuries glaciers built large moraines during the little ice age mainly during the 1700s and 1800s and lakes formed behind these moraines when climate warmed in the 1900s twentieth century climate warming is also responsible for recent moraine dam failures in mountains throughout the world warming from the late 1800s until about 1940 and again from 1965 to today destabilized moraine dams with interstitial or core ice the warming also forced glaciers to retreat prompting ice avalanches landslides and jokulhlaups that have destroyed some moraine dams

glacier changes in southeast alaska and northwest british columbia and contribution to sea level rise 1 the digital elevation model dem from the 2000 shuttle radar topography mission srtm was differenced from a composite dem based on air photos dating from 1948 to 1987 to determine glacier volume changes in southeast alaska and adjoining canada srtm accuracy was assessed at 5 m through comparison with airborne laser altimetry and control locations measured with gps glacier surface elevations lowered over 95 of the 14 580 km2 glacier covered area analyzed with some glaciers thinning as much as 640 m a combination of factors have contributed to this wastage including calving retreats of tidewater and lacustrine glaciers and climate change many glaciers in this region are particularly sensitive to climate change as they have large areas at low elevations however several tidewater glaciers that had historically undergone calving retreats are now expanding and appear to be in the advancing stage of the tidewater glacier cycle the net average rate of ice loss is estimated at 16 7 4 4 km3 yr equivalent to a global sea level rise contribution of 0 04 0 01 mm yr

late holocene activity of sherman and sheridan glaciers prince william sound alaska abstract two adjacent glaciers in the chugach mountains of south central alaska have markedly different histories on decadal to perhaps centennial timescales sheridan glacier has advanced and retreated hundreds of metres during the latest holocene its recent fluctuations have markedly altered local base level of sherman river which drains sherman glacier and flows into sheridan lake sheridan glacier advanced to its greatest extent during the little ice age raising base level of sherman river and inducing aggradation there of up to 17 m of sediment retreat of sheridan glacier formed a series of lakes that have coalesced as lower lake outlets have become available base level of sherman river has dropped resulting in the evacuation of substantial volumes of sediment from sherman river valley in about 2000 the terminus of sheridan glacier began to disintegrate retreat accelerated dramatically in 2010 by 2016 the glacier had retreated an average of 600 m from its 2010 terminus although some areas retreated up to 1 9 km and others did not retreat at all meanwhile sherman glacier continued a slow advance initiated by a rock avalanche that blanketed much of its ablation area in the 1964 alaska earthquake

drainage events from a glacier dammed lake bear glacier alaska remote sensing and field observations abstract we investigated drainage events from a glacier dammed lake on bear glacier alaska and associated outburst floods and hazards the glacier dammed lake which we call ice lake is 17 5 km up glacier from bear glacier s terminus at bear glacier lake we combine field observations and remote sensing to examine temporal changes in the size of ice lake the frequency and timing of its drainage and down glacier propagation of its outburst floods we found that in recent years ice lake has likely drained every year or two in late summer or fall august october with outbursts generally following the damming of sufficient water to create a lake area of between 0 35 and 0 5 km2 ice lake has migrated downvalley to the south since the 1990s likely as a result of thinning of the glacier that dams it in situ measurements of a drainage event in october 2010 showed that ice lake drained over a period of days which manifested at bear glacier lake as a gradual multiday increase and then decrease in water levels glacial lake outburst flooding at bear glacier creates risks for sea kayakers in bear glacier lake and may be relevant to understanding the effects of climate warming on glacier dammed and proglacial lakes

recent volume and area changes of kaskawulsh glacier yukon canada recent surface elevation changes of kaskawulsh glacier yukon canada are quantified by comparing an air photo derived dem from 1977 and airborne lidar measurements from 1995 2000 and 2007 surface area changes are assessed using historical aerial photography from 1956 and satellite imagery from 1977 to 2007 combined these measurements provide some of the first detailed records of volume change of a large yukon glacier between 1977 and 2007 kaskawulsh glacier underwent a decrease in area of 1 53 and a decrease in volume of 3 27 5 94 km 3 w e the terminus also retreated by 655 m over the period 1956 2007 there was relatively minor volume change over the period 1977 95 0 01 km 3 w e a 1 while over the periods 1995 2000 and 2000 07 volume losses occurred at a relatively constant rate of 0 51 and 0 50 km 3 a 1 w e respectively since 1995 thinning has been prominent throughout the ablation zone while relative stability and even slight thickening has occurred in the accumulation zone these findings are similar to those recently observed at other nearby alaskan glaciers

exceptional fossil preservation during co2 greenhouse crises abstract exceptional fossil preservation may require not only exceptional places but exceptional times as demonstrated here by two distinct types of analysis first irregular stratigraphic spacing of horizons yielding articulated triassic fishes and cambrian trilobites is highly correlated in sequences in different parts of the world as if there were short temporal intervals of exceptional preservation globally second compilations of ages of well dated fossil localities show spikes of abundance which coincide with stage boundaries mass extinctions oceanic anoxic events carbon isotope anomalies spikes of high atmospheric carbon dioxide and transient warm wet paleoclimates exceptional fossil preservation may have been promoted during unusual times comparable with the present co 2 greenhouse crises of expanding marine dead zones oceanic acidification coral bleaching wetland eutrophication sea level rise ice cap melting and biotic invasions

relation between the mass balance of western canadian mountain glaciers and meteorological data le bilan de masse les bilans d ete et d hiver et l altitude de la ligne d equilibre de 3 glaciers canadiens sont compares avec les donnees meteorologiques de stations avoisinantes pour la periode 1966 1984 presentation de reconstructions statistiques pour les 3 glaciers sur la base des equations de regression avec les enregistrements meteorologiques depuis 1938

alpine glaciers to disappear within decades 1 past present and potential future glacier cover in the entire european alps has been assessed from an integrated approach combining in situ measurements remote sensing techniques and numerical modeling for equilibrium line altitudes alpine glaciers lost 35 of their total area from 1850 until the 1970s and almost 50 by 2000 total glacier volume around 1850 is estimated at some 200 km3 and is now close to one third of this value from the model experiment we show that a 3 c warming of summer air temperature would reduce the currently existing alpine glacier cover by some 80 or up to 10 of the glacier extent of 1850 in the event of a 5 c temperature increase the alps would become almost completely ice free annual precipitation changes of 20 would modify such estimated percentages of remaining ice by a factor of less than two

an integrated approach to modelling hydrology and water quality in glacierized catchments the results are summarized of an integrated investigation of glacier geometry ablation patterns water balance meltwater routing hydrochemistry and suspended sediment yield the ultimate objective is to evaluate the assumptions of lumped two component mixing models as descriptors of glacier hydrology and to develop a semi distributed physically based model as an alternative the results of the study demonstrate that a reconstruction of probable subglacial drainage alignments can be achieved through a combination of terrain modelling based on estimated potential surface and dye tracing experiments recession curve analysis evidence of the seasonal instability of the englacial and subglacial electrical conductivities assumed in a mixing model evidence of the non conservative behaviour of water chemistry in the presence of suspended sediment and evidence of the seasonal evolution of the subglacial drainage system based on dye tracing all indicate that an alternative to a lumped static model of the hydrology is necessary the alternative presented in this paper is based on the combination of an energy balance model for surface melt which operates on an hourly time step and accounts for the changing spatial distribution of melt through the day as shading patterns change and routing procedures that transfer surface melt to moulins on the basis of glacier surface gradients then route water through reconstructed conduit systems using a hydraulic sewer flow routing procedure

the evidence for paraglacial sedimentation and its temporal scale in the deglacierizing basin of small river glacier canada abstract spatially sampled suspended sediment data from extra channel surfaces of different ages during rainfall events were used to infer the timescale of landscape adjustment to little ice age lia deglacierization at small river glacier canada surface ages were determined by aerial photograph interpretation turbidimeters were installed in three ephemeral channels on young mature and old surfaces and their response to rainfall events of different magnitudes recorded results showed young ice proximal surfaces exposed since 1977 were increasingly vulnerable to mobilization during rainfall events a suspended sediment response from old surfaces exposed since 1910 was recorded for only three events with 5 and 30 year return periods the intensity and duration of rainfall events therefore had to increase in magnitude to mobilize sediment on surfaces of increasing maturity hysteresis in the channel suspended sediment response further confirmed the dependence of surface response on rainfall event magnitude the rapid temporal decline in surface response indicated that surface armoring or sediment exhaustion is stabilizing surfaces within decades of exposure from the lia maximum ca 1910 at small river glacier however further perturbation for example by glacial advance or extreme climatic events would likely modify the pattern of suspended sediment yields by changing terrain surface mobilization thresholds and reconfiguring channel sediment stores we therefore suggest that it is difficult to determine when paraglacial sedimentation ceases to influence suspended sediment yields and therefore significantly limiting the usefulness of the term to describe the period of suspended sediment yield adjustment following deglacierization

the nonlinear northern hemisphere winter atmospheric response to enso 1 a nonlinear projection of the tropical pacific sea surface temperature anomalies ssta onto the northern hemisphere winter 500 mbar geopotential height z500 by a neural network reveals asymmetric atmospheric patterns associated with el nino and la nina while the linear response of z500 to tropical pacific ssta is largely confined over north pacific and north america the nonlinear response mainly a quadratic response to the ssta reveals that regardless of the sign of the ssta positive z500 anomalies are found over the central eastern north america north atlantic and western europe and negative z500 anomalies over the west coast of north america scandinavia and eastern europe consistent with the positive pacific north america pna teleconnection pattern and the positive north atlantic oscillation nao pattern being excited

removing free surface multiples from teleseismic transmission and constructed reflection responses using reciprocity and the inverse scattering series we develop a new way to remove free surface multiples from teleseismic p transmission and constructed reflection responses we consider two types of teleseismic waves with the presence of the free surface one is the recorded waves under the real transmission geometry the other is the constructed waves under a virtual reflection geometry the theory presented is limited to 1d plane wave acoustic media but this approximation is reasonable for the teleseismic p wave problem resulting from the steep emergence angle of the wavefield using one way wavefield reciprocity we show howtheteleseismicreflectionresponsescanbereconstructed from the teleseismic transmission responses we use the inverse scattering series to remove free surface multiples from the original transmission data and from the reconstructed reflection response we derive an alternative algorithm for reconstructing the reflection response from the transmission data that is obtained by taking the difference between the teleseismic transmission waves before and after free surface multiple removal numerical tests with 1d acoustic layered earthmodelsdemonstratethevalidityofthetheorywedevelop noisetestshowsthatthealgorithmcanworkwiths nratioaslowas5comparedtoactualdatawiths nratiofrom30 to 50 testing with elastic synthetic data indicates that the acousticalgorithmisstilleffectiveforsmallincidenceangles oftypicalteleseismicwavefields

tree ring based mass balance estimates for the past 300 years at peyto glacier alberta canada tree rings were used to reconstruct mass balance for peyto glacier in the canadian rocky mountains from a d 1673 to 1994 summer balance was reconstructed from tree ring estimates of summer temperature and precipitation in the canadian rockies winter balance was derived from tree ring data from sites bordering the gulf of alaska and in western british columbia the models for winter and summer balance each explain over 40 of the variance in the appropriate mass balance series over the period 1966 1994 the correlation between the reconstructed and measured net balances is 0 71 strong positive mass balances are reconstructed for 1695 1720 and 1810 1825 when higher winter precipitation coincided with reduced ablation periods of reconstructed positive mass balance precede construction of terminal moraines throughout the canadian rockies ca 1700 1725 and 1825 1850 positive mass balances in the period 1845 1880 also correspond to intervals of glacier readvance mass balances were generally negative between 1760 and 1805 from 1673 to 1883 the mean annual net balance was 70 mm water equivalent per year w e yr but it averaged 317 mm w e yr from 1884 to 1994 this reconstructed mass balance history provides a continuous record of glacier change that appears regionally representative and consistent with moraine and other proxy climate records

glacier mass balance fluctuations in the pacific northwest and alaska usa the more than 40 year record of net and seasonal mass balance records from measurements made by the u s geological survey on south cascade glacier washington and wolverine and gulkana glaciers alaska show annual and interannual fluctuations that reflect changes in the controlling climatic conditions at regional and global scales as the mass balance record grows in length it is revealing significant changes in previously described glacier mass balance behavior and both inter glacier and glacier climate relationships south cascade and wolverine glaciers are strongly affected by the warm and wet maritime climate of the northeast pacific ocean their net balances have generally been controlled by winter accumulation with fluctuations that are strongly related to the pacific decadal oscillations pdo recently warm dry summers have begun to dominate the net balance of the two maritime glaciers with a weakening of the correlation between the winter balance fluctuations and the pdo non synchronous periods of positive and negative net balance for each glacier prior to 1989 were followed by a 1989 to 2004 period of synchronous and almost exclusively negative net balances that averaged 0 8 m for the three glaciers

late summer thermal regime of a small proglacial lake this study was motivated by an interest in understanding the potential effects of climate change and glacier retreat on late summer water temperatures in alpine areas fieldwork was carried out between july and september 2007 at place lake located below place glacier in the southern coast mountains of british columbia place lake has an area of 72 000m2 a single inlet and outlet channel and an approximate residence time of 4 days warming between the inlet and outlet of the lake ranged up to 3 c and averaged 1 8 c which exceeds the amount of warming that occurred over the 1 km reach of place creek between the lake outlet and tree line over a 23 day period net radiation totalled about 210 mj m 2 with sensible heat flux adding another 56 mjm 2 the latent heat flux consumed about 8 of the surface heat input the dominant heat sink was the net horizontal advection associated with lake inflow and outflow early in the study period temperatures between the surface and 6 m depth were dominantly at or above 4 c and were generally neutral to thermally stable whereas temperatures decreased with depth below 6m and exhibited irregular sub diurnal variations the maximum outflow temperature of almost 7 c occurred in this period we hypothesize that turbidity currents associated with cold sediment laden glacier discharge formed an underflow and influenced temperatures in the deeper portion of the lake but did not mix with the upper layers later in the study period the lake was dominantly well mixed with some near surface stability associated with nocturnal cooling further research is required to examine the combined effects of sediment concentrations and thermal processes on mixing in small proglacial lakes to make projections of the consequences of glacier retreat on alpine lake and stream temperatures

conditions for feedbacks between geomorphic and vegetation dynamics on lateral moraine slopes a biogeomorphic feedback window little ice age lateral moraines represent one of the most important sediment storages and dynamic areas in glacier forelands following glacier retreat simultaneous paraglacial adjustment and vegetation succession affect the moraine slopes geomorphic processes e g debris flows interrill erosion gullying solifluction disturb and limit vegetation development while increasing vegetation cover decreases geomorphic activity thus feedbacks between geomorphic and vegetation dynamics strongly control moraine slope development however the conditions under which these biogeomorphic feedbacks can occur are insufficiently understood and major knowledge gaps remain this study determines feedback conditions through the analysis of geomorphic and vegetation data from permanent plots in the turtmann glacier foreland switzerland results from multivariate statistical analysis i confirm that dryas octopetala l is an alpine ecosystem engineer species which influences geomorphic processes on lateral moraines and thereby controls ecosystem structure and function and ii demonstrate that biogeomorphic feedbacks can occur once geomorphic activity sufficiently decreases for d octopetala to establish and cross a cover threshold in the subsequent ecosystem engineering process the dominant geomorphic processes change from flow and slide to bound solifluction increasing slope stabilization induces a decline in biogeomorphic feedbacks and the suppression of d octopetala by shrubs we conceptualize this relationship between process magnitude frequency and species resilience and resistance to disturbances in a biogeomorphic feedback window concept our approach enhances the understanding of feedbacks between geomorphic and alpine vegetation dynamics on lateral moraine slopes and highlights the importance of integrating geomorphic and ecological approaches for biogeomorphic research copyright 2015 john wiley sons ltd

biogeomorphic interactions in the turtmann glacier forefield switzerland glacier forefields are dynamic environments dominated by active paraglacial processes and simultaneous vegetation succession triggered by glacier retreat since the little ice age while these dynamics are accelerating in the last decades owing to climate change interactions between vegetation and geomorphic processes and components and the resulting patterns are only partly understood using a biomorphic approach based on preexisting geomorphic and glaciological data geomorphic activity was classified and mapped in the turtmann glacier forefield switzerland vegetation and environmental parameters were sampled vegetation analysis was subsequently carried out with vegetation classification and ordination for identifying relationships to environmental parameters a paraglacial impact on vegetation succession could be shown and differentiated according to geomorphic activity on constant terrain age biogeomorphic concepts were then applied to explain these patterns three biogeomorphic succession phases were identified and related to degrees of activity species composition and strength of interactions integrating our results into the paraglacial concept we show how the paraglacial adjustment of a glacier forefield is significantly affected by biogeomorphic interactions

a multi species dendroclimatic reconstruction of chilko river streamflow british columbia canada dendroclimatological data were used to reconstruct the discharge history of chilko river which drains a glacierized watershed in the coast mountains of british columbia we correlated ring width records from engelmann spruce es picea engelmanni and mountain hemlock mh tsuga mertensiana trees to historical hydroclimate data over the period of record spruce and hemlock radial growth correlates significantly with temperature and snow depth respectively we found that a multi species approach provided a better model fit and reconstructive power using these relationships we developed generalized linear models for mean june july and june july discharge the proxy records provide insights into streamflow variability of a typical coast mountains river over the past 240 years and confirm the long term influence of the pacific decadal oscillation pdo on hydroclimatic regimes in the region a relationship also exists between the reconstructed june july discharge record and the north pacific np index suggesting that winter atmospheric patterns over the north pacific influence the hydrology of coastal british columbia copyright 2010 john wiley sons ltd

teleconnections in the geopotential height field during the northern hemisphere winter abstract contemporaneous correlations between geopotential heights on a given pressure surface at widely separated points on earth referred to as teleconnections in this paper are studied in an attempt to identify and document recurrent spatial patterns which might be indicative of standing oscillations in the planetary waves during the northern hemisphere winter with time scales on the order of a month or longer a review of existing literature on the subject reveals the existence of at least four such patterns the north atlantic and north pacific oscillations identified by walker and bliss 1932 a zonally symmetric seesaw between sea level pressures in polar and temperature latitudes first noted by lorenz 1951 and what we will refer to as the pacific north american pattern which has been known to operational long range forecasters in this country since the 1950 s a data set consisting of nmc monthly mean sea level pressure and 500 mb height analyses for a 15 year period is used as a basis fo

recent volume loss of british columbian glaciers canada 1 we use the shuttle radar topography mission srtm data and digital terrain models from aerial photography to quantify the change of glacier volume in british columbia bc canada for the period 1985 1999 we note substantial elevation bias in the srtm elevations typically on the order of 12 m km 1 the bias corrected thinning rate is 0 78 0 19 m a 1 which yields an annual volume loss of 22 48 5 53 km 3a 1 this rate of glacier volume loss is 65 of the estimate uncorrected for elevation bias 34 7 km 3a 1 and cautions against the use of uncorrected srtm data for glacier change studies glacier recession in bc could account for ca 0 67 0 12 mm of sea level rise over the period 1985 1999 0 05 0 009 mm yr 1 or about 8 3 of the contribution from mountain glaciers and ice caps the recent rate of glacier loss in the coast mountains 17 0 km 3a 1 is approximately double that observed for the previous two decades

uphill facing antislope scarps in the coast mountains southwest british columbia uphill facing scarps are examined at affliction creek a glacierized area within the meager creek volcanic complex of southwest british columbia scarps occur directly downslope of tension cracks and are considered to have developed from a combination of 1 antithetic movement between partly toppled slices of rock defined by a master joint set dipping into the slope and 2 erosion of the upslope face of each tension crack leaving the downslope face prominent as an antislope scarp a kinematic test for toppling failure is described glacial erosion and rapid glacial downwasting are probable causes of toppling lichenometric data indicate significant scarp development since affliction glacier attained its maximum neoglacial dimensions about 140 yr ago dilatancy is cited as a possible mechanism for scarp stabilization

annular modes in the extratropical circulation part i month to month variability the leading modes of variability of the extratropical circulation in both hemispheres are characterized by deep zonally symmetric or annular structures with geopotential height perturbations of opposing signs in the polar cap region and in the surrounding zonal ring centered near 458 latitude the structure and dynamics of the southern hemisphere sh annular mode have been extensively documented whereas the existence of a northern hemisphere nh mode herein referred to as the arctic oscillation ao has only recently been recognized like the sh mode the ao can be defined as the leading empirical orthogonal function of the sea level pressure field or of the zonally symmetric geopotential height or zonal wind fields in this paper the structure and seasonality of the nh and sh modes are compared based on data from the national centers for environmental prediction national center for atmospheric research reanalysis and supplementary datasets the structures of the nh and sh annular modes are shown to be remarkably similar not only in the zonally averaged geopotential height and zonal wind fields but in the mean meridional circulations as well both exist year round in the troposphere but they amplify with height upward into the stratosphere during those seasons in which the strength of the zonal flow is conducive to strong planetary wave mean flow interaction midwinter in the nh and late spring in the sh during these active seasons the annular modes modulate the strength of the lagrangian mean circulation in the lower stratosphere total column ozone and tropopause height over mid and high latitudes and the strength of the trade winds of their respective hemispheres the nh mode also contains an embedded planetary wave signature with expressions in surface air temperature precipitation total column ozone and tropopause height it is argued that the horizontal temperature advection by the perturbed zonal mean zonal wind field in the lower troposphere is instrumental in forcing this pattern a companion paper documents the striking resemblance between the structure of the annular modes and observed climate trends over the past few decades

relationships between synoptic scale atmospheric circulation and glacier mass balance in south western canada during the international hydrological decade 1965 74 on recherche la correlation entre la circulation atmospherique a l echelle synoptique et le bilan glaciaire dans la cordillere du sud ouest canada des techniques de caracterisation synoptiques objectives sont appliquees a des donnees glacio meteorologiques provenant du peyto glacier en alberta et sentinel glacier en colombie britannique et a des releves climatologiques emanant des stations meteorologiques voisines au niveau de 500 mbar on a analyse et compare deux echelles de cartes meteorologiques synoptiques l une est plus petite avec de nombreuses fluctuations l autre est plus grande avec des traits plus generaux

regional differences in response of flow in glacier fed himalayan rivers to climatic warming river flow from glacierized areas in the himalaya is influenced both by intra annual variations in precipitation and energy availability and by longer term changes in storage of water as glacier ice high specific discharge from ice melt often dominates flow for considerable distances downstream particularly where other sources of runoff are limited providing a major water resource should himalayan glaciers continue to retreat rapidly water shortages might be widespread within a few decades however given the difference in climate between the drier western and monsoonal eastern ends of the region future warming is unlikely to affect river flow uniformly throughout a simple temperature index based hydro glaciological model in which glacier dimensions are allowed to decline through time has been developed with a view to assessing in data sparse areas by how much and when climate warming will reduce himalayan glacier dimensions and affect downstream river flows two glaciers having the same initial geometries were located one each in the headwaters of two identical nests of hypothetical catchments representing contrasting climates in the west and east of the region the hypothetical catchments were nested such that percentage ice cover declined with increasing basin area model parameters were validated against available but limited mass balance and river flow measurements the model was applied for 150 years from an arbitrary start date 1990 first with standard period 1961 1990 climate data and then with application of a 0 06 c year 1 transient climatic warming scenario under this warming scenario himalayan rivers fed by large glaciers descending through considerable elevation range will respond in a broadly similar manner except that summer snowfall in the east will suppress the rate of initial flow increase delay peak discharge and postpone eventual disappearance of the ice impacts of declining glacier area on river flow will be greater in smaller and more highly glacierized basins in both the west and east and in the west where precipitation is scarce for considerable distances downstream copyright 2006 john wiley sons ltd

tree ring based reconstructions of north american glacier mass balance through the little ice age contemporary warming transition abstract glacier mass balance reconstructions provide a means of placing relatively short observational records into a longer term context in western north america mass balance records span four to five decades and capture a relatively narrow window of glacial behavior over an interval that was dominated by warming and ablation we use temperature and moisture sensitive tree ring series to reconstruct annual mass balance for six glaciers in the pacific northwest and alaska mass balance models rely on the climatic sensitivity of tree ring chronologies and teleconnection patterns in the north pacific the reconstructions extend through the mid to latter portions of the little ice age lia and explore the role of climate variability in forcing mass balance across multiple environmental gradients synchronous positive mass balance intervals coincide with regional moraine building and solar minima whereas differences in lia glacier behavior are related to synoptic climate forcing secular warming in the late 19th century to present corresponds with the only multi decadal intervals of negative mass balance in all glacier reconstructions this suggests that contemporary retreat in western north america is unique with respect to the last several centuries and that regional patterns of glacier variability are now dominated by global climate forcing

the july 29 1998 debris flow and landslide dam at capricorn creek mount meager volcanic complex southern coast mountains british columbia a very large debris flow was triggered during a period of record breaking high temperatures in upper capricorn creek within the mount meager volcanic complex a part of the garibaldi volcanic belt of the southern coast mountains the debris flow deposit impounded meager creek creating an 800 m long landslide dammed lake the total event volume was 1 2 106 m3 the debris flow was followed by three days of almost continuous hyperconcentrated flow surges which caused significant fluvial aggradation in the meager creek flood plain below the capricorn creek confluence within a few days of the formation of the landslide dam a spillway notch had been cut through the deposit thereby preventing the occurrence of a catastrophic dam break the landslide which triggered the debris flow originated in deep volcanic colluvium having a previous history of progressive slope deformation a consequence of glacial downwasting since the neoglacial maximum this paper highlights an important landslide response to rec

biogeochemistry of glacial landscape systems abstractglaciers affect biogeochemistry of landscapes through their sediments glacial erosion rates are high and the sediments produced are distinctively fine grained hence glaciers can be thought of as producers of mineral surface area although this mineral surface area is highly reactive temperature limits chemical weathering fluxes from glaciers and their surroundings more significant effects may be associated with silt deposited in loess and on continental margins thick deposits in both settings contribute to carbon cycling through both silicate weathering and organic carbon burial the impact of glaciers on biogeochemical cycles will be long lasting as the legacy of glacial erosion processes continues as long as sediment yields are elevated

environmental reconstruction from a varve network in the southern coast mountains british columbia canada cores of annually laminated sediments varves from five lakes in the southern coast mountains of british columbia canada document clastic sediment response to climate and geomorphic change over the past 120 years interannual varve thickness correlates with annual flood magnitude interdecadal trends in varve thickness are influenced by other environmental factors such as glacier recession despite major differences in the lakes and their contributing watersheds substantial concordance is observed among the records a pronounced change in the nature of lake sedimentation accompanied by higher interannual variability occurred in 1980 the change coincides with an increase in the magnitude of autumn flooding and major re organization of the north pacific climate system these results highlight new directions for palaeoenvironmental research using varved sediment records specifically to study the magnitude and spatial extent of past hydro climatic events

multivariate geostatistical modeling of the spatial sediment distribution in a large scale drainage basin upper rhone switzerland abstract there is a notable discrepancy between detailed sediment budget studies in small headwater catchments 103 km2 in higher order catchments applying modeling and or remote sensing based approaches for major sediment storage delineation to bridge the gap between these scales we compiled an inventory of sediment and bedrock coverage from field mapping remote sensing analysis and published data for five key sites in the upper rhone basin val d illiez val de la liene turtmanntal lotschental goms 360 3 km2 equivalent to 6 7 of the upper rhone basin this inventory was used as training and testing data for the classification of sediment and bedrock cover from a digital elevation model 2 2 m ground resolution and landsat imagery we derived 22 parameters characterizing local morphometry topography and position contributing area and climatic and biotic factors on different spatial scales which were used as inputs for different statistical models logistic regression principal component logistic regression generalized additive model best prediction results with an excellent performance mean auroc 0 8721 0 0012 and both a high spatial and non spatial transferability were achieved applying a generalized additive model since the model has a high thematic consistency the independent input variables chosen based on their geomorphic relevance are suitable to model the spatial distribution of sediment our high resolution classification shows that 53 5 21 7 of the upper rhone basin are covered with sediment these are by no means evenly distributed small headwaters

comparing three different methods to model scenarios of future glacier change in the swiss alps ongoing atmospheric warming causes rapid shrinking of glaciers in the european alps with a high chance of their near complete disappearance by the end of the 21st century here we present a comparison of three independent approaches to model the possible evolution of the glaciers in the swiss alps over the 21st century the models have different levels of complexity work at a regional scale and are forced with three scenarios of temperature increase low moderate high the moderate climate scenario gives an increase in air temperature of 28c and 48c for the two scenario periods 2021 50 and 2070 99 respectively resulting in an area loss of 60 80 by 2100 in reality the shrinkage could be even faster as the observed mean annual thickness loss is already stronger than the modelled one the three approaches lead to rather similar results with respect to the overall long term evolution the choice of climate scenarios produces the largest spread 40 in the final area loss while the uncertainty in present day ice thickness estimation causes about half this spread

recent shrinkage and hydrological response of hailuogou glacier a monsoon temperate glacier on the east slope of mount gongga china temperate glaciers are more sensitive to climate changes than polar or continental glaciers and can drive remarkable runoff variation in local water catchments here we present recent glacier shrinkage and runoff change for hailuogou glacier a typical monsoon temperate glacier on the east slope of mount gongga minya konga china the surface area of hailuogou glacier has decreased by 3 5 0 92 km 2 between 1966 aerial photographs and 2007 aster images flow measurements at a stream gauge about 500 m down glacier commencing in 1994 display a remarkable increase in annual runoff mostly during july september since 1999 annual runoff over the same period in a non glacierized but forested subcatchment 9 17 km 2 did not experience significant change by separating the daily rainfall component from the daily total discharge monthly catchment water balance series were calculated for the period 1994 2005 which shows an increasing trend of glacier storage loss we concluded that air temperature rise with a trend of 0 2 degrees c 10a 1 between 1988 and 2005 recorded at nearby weather stations has had an increased effect on glacier mass loss and river runoff change during the past 20 years

disequilibrium of holocene sediment yield in glaciated british columbia it is generally supposed that specific sediment yield the quantity of sediment passing a monitored river cross section per unit area drained upstream of that section declines as the area drained increases1 3 part of the sediment mobilized from the land surface is supposed to go back into storage at field edges and on footslopes and floodplains in contrast we show here that data from british columbian rivers reveal a pattern of increasing specific sediment yield at all spatial scales up to 3 104 km2 this results from the dominance of secondary remobilization of quaternary sediments along river valleys over primary denudation of the land surface the result controverts the conventional model which has been derived from studies of small highly disturbed agricultural catch ments the rivers are still responding to the last glaciation giving a landscape relaxation time greater than 10 kyr this holds pro found implications for geomorphological theory and for studies of erosion

glacier change in western north america influences on hydrology geomorphic hazards and water quality the glaciers of western canada and the conterminous united states have dominantly retreated since the end of the little ice age lia in the nineteenth century although average rates of retreat varied from strong in the first half of the twentieth century with glaciers stabilizing or even advancing until 1980 and then resuming consistent recession this retreat has been accompanied by statistically detectable declines in late summer streamflow from glacier fed catchments over much of the study area although there is some geographical variation over recent decades glaciers in northwest bc and southwest yukon have lost mass dominantly by thinning with relatively low rates of terminal retreat and glacier fed streams in that region have experienced increasing flows in many valleys glacier retreat has produced geomorphic hazards including outburst floods from moraine dammed lakes mass failures from oversteepened valley walls and debris flows generated on moraines in addition to these hydrologic and geomorphic changes evidence is presented that glacier retreat will result in higher stream temperatures possibly transient increases in suspended sediment fluxes and concentrations and changes in water chemistry with climate projected to continue warming over the twenty first century current trends in hydrology geomorphology and water quality should continue with a range of implications for water resources availability and management and hydroecology particularly for cool and cold water species such as salmonids copyright 2008 john wiley sons ltd

a century of glacier change in the wind river range wy abstract the wind river range spans roughly 200 km along the continental divide in western wyoming and encompasses at least 269 glaciers and perennial snowfields totaling 34 34 0 13 km 2 2006 including gannett glacier the largest glacier 2 81 km 2 in the continental u s outside of washington state to track changing glacier and perennial snow surface area over the past century we used historic maps aerial photography and geologic evidence evident in said imagery since the end of the little ice age 1900 when the glaciers retreated from their moraines to 2006 the ice covered area shrank by 47 the main driver of surface area change was air temperature with glaciers at lower elevations shrinking faster than those at higher elevations the total contribution of ice wastage to late summer stream flow ranged from 0 4 to 1 5 0 9 to 2 8 1 7 to 5 4 and 3 4 to 10 9 in four different watersheds none of which exceeded 7 glacier cover results from previous studies were difficult to include because of differences in interpretation of glacier boundaries because of poor imagery or to extensive seasonal snow these difficulties highlight potential problems in combining data sets from different studies and underscores the importance of reexamining past observations to ensure consistent interpretation

landsat based inventory of glaciers in western canada 1985 2005 abstract we report on a glacier inventory for the canadian cordillera south of 60 n across the two western provinces of british columbia and alberta containing 30 000 km2 of glacierized terrain our semi automated method extracted glacier extents from landsat thematic mapper tm scenes for 2005 and 2000 using a band ratio tm3 tm5 we compared these extents with glacier cover for the mid 1980s from high altitude aerial photography for british columbia and from landsat tm imagery for alberta a 25 m digital elevation model dem helped to identify debris covered ice and to split the glaciers into their respective drainage basins the estimated mapping errors are 3 4 and arise primarily from seasonal snow cover glaciers in british columbia and alberta respectively lost 10 8 3 8 and 25 4 4 1 of their area over the period 1985 2005 the region wide annual shrinkage rate of 0 55 a 1 is comparable to rates reported for other mountain ranges in the late twentieth century least glacierized mountain ranges with smaller glaciers lost the largest fraction of ice cover the highest relative ice loss in british columbia 24 0 4 6 occurred in the northern interior ranges while glaciers in the northern coast mountains declined least 7 7 3 4

glacier change 1958 1998 in the north cascades national park complex washington usa the spatial characteristics for all glaciers in the north cascades national park complex usa were estimated in 1958 and again in 1998 the total glacier area in 1958 was 117 3 1 1 km 2 by 1998 the glacier area had decreased to 109 1 1 1 km 2 a reduction of 8 2 0 1 km 2 7 estimated volume loss during the 40 year period was 0 8 0 1 km 3 of ice this volume loss contributes up to 6 of the august september stream flow and equals 16 of the august september precipitation no significant correlations were found between magnitude of glacier shrinkage and topographic characteristics of elevation aspect or slope however the smaller glaciers lost proportionally more area than the larger glaciers and had a greater variability in fractional change than larger glaciers most of the well studied alpine glaciers are much larger than the population median so global estimates of glacier shrinkage based on these well studied glaciers probably underestimate the true magnitude of regional glacier change

the new remote sensing derived swiss glacier inventory ii first results complete swiss glacier inventories are available for 1850 reconstructed and 1973 from aerial photography connected to the global land ice measurements from space project a new swiss glacier inventory for approximately the year 2000 sgi 2000 is compiled mainly based on satellite imagery the developed and applied remotesensing and geographical information system gis methods are described in part i of the contribution in part ii the inventory design first result analyses and comparisons with former glacial conditions are presented as basic entries sgi 2000 contains the individual glacier identification planimetric glacier boundaries as derived from image analysis digitized central flowlines and polygonal glacier basin maps all other parameters are automatically deduced from the above entries and a digital elevation model within a gis here we analyze a set of small bernese and valais glaciers of area 2 these glaciers lost about 21 of area from 1973 to 1998 in addition to about 80 during 1850 1973 both with respect to the 1973 area in order to track the latest trend in more detail anintermediate glacier condition has been compiled from satellite imagery of 1985 this analysis gave an increasing speed of area loss 19 for 1985 98

the landslide response of alpine basins to post little ice age glacial thinning and retreat in southwestern british columbia abstract the role of post little ice age lia neoglacial retreat on landslide activity is investigated in 19 alpine basins along the upper lillooet river valley british columbia we examine how neoglacial scouring and glacial recession have modified hillslope form and slope stability and construct a decision making flowchart to identify landslide hazards associated with glacial retreat this work is based on field mapping gis analysis statistical associations between landslides and terrain attributes and a comparison between neoglaciated and non neoglaciated terrain within each basin the bedrock landslide response to glacial retreat varies appreciably according to lithology and the extent of glacial scour below the lia trimline valleys carved in weak quaternary volcanics show significant erosional oversteepening and contain deep seated slope movement features active rock fall rock slides and rock avalanches near glacial trimlines basins in stronger granitic rock rarely show increased bedrock instability resulting from post lia retreat except for shallow seated rock slides along some trimlines and failures on previously unstable slopes in surficial materials landslides associated with post lia retreat originate in till or colluvium as debris slides or debris avalanches and are concentrated along lateral moraines or glacial trimlines significant spatial association was also observed between recent catastrophic failures gravitational slope deformation and slopes that were oversteepened then debuttressed by glacial erosion eight out of nine catastrophic rock slope failures occurred just above glacial trimlines and all occurred in areas with a previous history of deep seated gravitational slope movement implying that this type of deformation is a precursor to catastrophic detachment

spatial and morphological change on eliot glacier mount hood oregon usa eliot glacier is a small 1 6 km 2 glacier on mount hood oregon usa and its ablation zone is largely covered with rock debris we examine the interrelated processes of ablation rates ice thickness and surface velocities to understand the retreat rate of this glacier since measurements began in 1901 the glacier has retreated 680 m lost 19 of its area and thinned by about 50 m at the lower glacier profile before the terminus retreated past that point the upper profile 800 m up glacier has shown thinning and thickening due to a kinematic wave resulting from a cool period during the 1940s 70s and is currently about the same thickness as in 1940 overall the glacier has retreated at a slower rate than other glaciers on mount hood we hypothesize that the rock debris covering the ablation zone reduces eliot glacier s sensitivity to global warming and slows its retreat rate compared to other glaciers on mount hood spatial variations in debris thickness are the primary factor in controlling spatial variations in melt a continuity model of debris thickness shows the rate of debris thickening down glacier is roughly constant and is a result of the compensating effects of strain thickening and debris melt out from the ice

the current disequilibrium of north cascade glaciers three lines of evidence indicate that north cascade washington usa glaciers are currently in a state of disequilibrium first annual balance measured on nine glaciers yields a mean cumulative balance for the 1984 2004 period of 8 58 m water equivalent w e a net loss of ice thickness exceeding 9 5 m this is a significant loss for glaciers that average 30 50 m in thickness representing 18 32 of their entire volume second longitudinal profiles completed in 1984 and 2002 on 12 north cascade glaciers confirm this volume change indicating a loss of 5 7 to 6 3 m in thickness 5 0 5 6 m w e between 1984 and 2002 agreeing well with the measured cumulative balance of 5 52 m w e for the same period the change in thickness on several glaciers has been equally substantial in the accumulation zone and the ablation zone indicating that there is no point to which the glacier can retreat to achieve equilibrium substantial thinning along the entire length of a glacier is the key indicator that a glacier is in disequilibrium third north cascade glacier retreat is rapid and ubiquitous all 47 glaciers monitored are currently undergoing significant retreat or in the case of four have disappeared two of the glaciers where mass balance observations were begun spider glacier and lewis glacier have disappeared the retreat since 1984 of eight mount baker glaciers that were all advancing in 1975 has averaged 297 m these observations indicate broad regional continuity in glacial response to climate copyright 2006 john wiley sons ltd

southern patagonia s perito moreno glacier lake argentino and santa cruz river hydrological system an overview summary an overview of the hydrological data from patagonia s perito moreno glacier lake argentino and santa cruz river system reinforces our previous assertion that the el nino southern oscillation enso and the antarctic oscillation aao are teleconnected with the rupture sequence when the glacier s snout harmonically dams during certain interannual periods the rico branch of lake argentino it is clear however that the incidence of interannual climatic anomalies is not uniform in time and appears embedded in decadal or quasi bidecadal periods of relative damming inactivity the use of nonparametric tests shows that there are no significant positive trends in the river s annual discharge with the only exception of the yearly snowmelt ice melt periods september october when riverine flow appears to increase with statistical significance the question of the glacier s stability looks like a complex multivariate process although we do not rule out the occasional role of enso aao a longer hydrological data series i e 100 years would prove useful in casting some light on this intriguing process surely accounting for the glacier s response time

the physical basis of glacier volume area scaling ice volumes are known for only a few of the roughly 160 000 glaciers worldwide but are important components of many climate and sea level studies which require water flux estimates a scaling analysis of the mass and momentum conservation equations shows that glacier volumes can be related by a power law to more easily observed glacier surface areas the relationship requires four closure choices for the scaling behavior of glacier widths slopes side drag and mass balance reasonable closures predict a volume area scaling exponent which is consistent with observations giving a physical and practical basis for estimating ice volumes glacier volume is insensitive to perturbations in the mass balance scaling but changes in average accumulation area ratios reflect significant changes in the scaling of both mass balance and ice volume

holocene glacier fluctuations in the canadian cordillera alberta and british columbia abstract although the record of holocene glacier fluctuations in british columbia and alberta is still very fragmentary much recent progress has been made in their study dating of end moraines has been supplemented by studies of lateral moraine stratigraphy and dating of glacially overridden organic matter upstream of end moraines dates from sites close to contemporary glaciers indicate that ice had retreated to about its present limits before 10 ka bp prior to deposition of mazama tephra a minor pre hypsithermal readvance the crowfoot advance left deposits in the rockies and the interior of british columbia the earliest known neoglacial advances occurred 5 6 ka bp in the coast mountains and shortly after 4 ka bp in the rockies an advance culminating ca 4 3 ka bp has been reported from bugaboo glacier while evidence of another advance culminating in the period ca 2 5 1 8 ka bp the tiedemann advance is reported from more than one site following a recession the little ice age expansion the cavell advance began shortly after 900 bp this advance culminated in most cases in the 18th or 19th centuries the crowfoot tiedemann and little ice age advances were apparently of roughly the same magnitude the latter was most extensive in most cases but at several sites crowfoot moraines lie slightly farther downvalley than little ice age moraines during the present century ice fronts have generally retreated particularly rapidly in the period 1920 1950 a d although rates of retreat have decreased in the last three decades and some glaciers have readvanced slightly

quantifying the effects of climate and surface change on glacier mass balance when a mass balance is computed using an outdated map that computation does not reveal the actual mass change but older maps often must be used for practical reasons we present a method by which with a few additional measurements each year a mass balance computed with an outdated map can be transformed into an actual mass change this is done by taking into account the influence of changes in areal extent and changes in the surface elevation of the glacier since the map was made this method is applied to south cascade glacier washington u s a as an example the computed cumulative mass balance from 1970 to 1997 would have been 16 too negative if the 1970 map had not been updated while the actual volume change of a glacier is relevant to hydrological studies the change that would have occurred on a constant or static surface is more relevant to certain glacier dynamics problems and most climate problems we term this the reference surface balance and propose that such a balance which deliberately omits the influence of changes in area and surface elevation is better correlated to climatic variations than the conventional one which incorporates those influences

continental glacier meltwater contributions to late summer stream flow and water quality in the northern wind river range wyoming usa the wind river range in wyoming contains more than 60 glaciers that are part of the headwaters for the wind missouri green colorado and snake columbia river systems continental glacier lies on the crest of the northern wind river range and covers approximately 2 5 km2 with meltwater flowing into west torrey creek and the wind river discharge measurements of upper continental glacier meltwater were made in august 2012 and 2014 water samples were collected in 2014 for the analysis of stable isotopes field parameters and 23 trace elements this study demonstrated that continental glacier meltwater accounted for a mean of 32 91 8 4 of torrey creek flow and 4 11 18 38 of wind river flow as measured above red creek for august 2012 and 2014 scaling of these results to all perennial snow and ice in the upper torrey creek basin yielded an estimate of 82 70 contribution to torrey creek flow and 10 32 of wind river flow above red creek during august glacier meltwater contributions versus snow melt to torrey creek based on 18o ratios ranged from 81 05 to 82 70 of flow with a mean of 81 88 1 17 for august 2014 continental glacier meltwater accounted for 89 99 of nitrate nitrite and 34 83 of total phosphorus loading to torrey creek in august 2014 the ph of the snow and glacier meltwater was less than 6 0 likely the result of nitrate nitrite and other atmospheric deposition finally analysis of trace elements showed distinct differences between water sources

holocene glacier fluctuations in the american cordillera abstract in many areas of the american rocky mountains colorado wyoming utah idaho montana cascade range washington oregon and the sierra nevada california radiocarbon ages suggest that ice receded to near present limits before 10 ka bp a pre altithermal readvance or stillstand left moraines ca 1 3 km beyond and ca 50 300 m below present glacier margins at one locality on glacier peak in washington these deposits are perhaps dated to the early holocene but in general these deposits are probably at least 10 ka old glacial advances during the altithermal ca 8 to 5 ka bp elsewhere are rare radiocarbon evidence for altithermal glacial advances in the colorado front range is questionable the earliest radiocarbon dated neoglacial advances occurred about 5 ka bp in the washington cascades moraines and related deposits believed to be of early neoglacial age i e 5 to 3 ka bp elsewhere are poorly dated for example moraines believed to date to the early neoglacial in colorado triple lakes and wyoming temple lake are actually late pleistocene age based on radiocarbon ages derived from lake sediments at the type localities although relative age data i e lichens rock weathering soils from many areas suggest a three fold neoglacial sequence little supporting radiocarbon evidence is available however tephrochronology distinguishes three neoglacial advances near mount rainier in washington in most mountain ranges of the western united states fresh unweathered sharp crested moraines usually adjacent to present ice margins or near headwalls in empty cirques date to the little ice age of the last several centuries however detailed photographic or other historical records of glacial fluctuations during the last century are rare and detailed mass balance studies rarer still whether or not pre little ice age glacial fluctuations in the american cordillera are synchronous must await better radiometric dating of local moraine sequences

recent climatic change and catastrophic geomorphic processes in mountain environments climatic warming during the last 100 150 years has resulted in a significant glacier ice loss from mountainous areas of the world certain natural processes which pose hazards to people and development in these areas have accelerated as a result of this recent deglaciation these include glacier avalanches landslides and slope instability caused by glacier debuttressing and outburst floods from moraine and glacier dammed lakes in addition changes in sediment and water supply induced by climatic warming and glacier retreat have altered channel and floodplain patterns of rivers draining high mountain ranges the perturbation of natural processes operating in mountain environments caused by recent climatic warming ranges from tens of decades for moraine dam failures to hundreds of years or more for landslides the recognition that climatic change as modest as that of the last century can perturb natural alpine processes has important implications for hazard assessment and future development in mountains even so these effects are probably at least an order of magnitude smaller than those associated with late pleistocene deglaciation ca 15 000 to 10 000 years ago

recent changes in glacier area and volume within the southern canadian cordillera net changes in glacier area in the region 50 518 n 116 1258 w which includes the columbia and rocky mountains 1951 52 2001 and the coast mountains 1964 65 2002 were determined through a comparison of historic aerial photography and contemporary landsat 7 etm imagery the volumes of individual glaciers were estimated using an empirical volume area scaling relationship the area of glaciers in the coast mountains decreased by 120 10 km 2 or 5 of the initial ice covered area here the areas of glaciers in the columbia and rocky mountains decreased by 20 and 6k m 2 respectively corresponding to relative changes in total area of 5 and 15 the estimated total ice volume loss from the whole region was 13 3k m 3 in all parts of the study area the relative changes in area of individual glaciers showed considerable variability while the smallest glaciers remained essentially unchanged this suggests that local factors unique to individual glaciers largely determine their sensitivity to climatic change and that the very small glaciers are collectively less sensitive to such change

volume area scaling vs flowline modelling in glacier volume projections volume area scaling provides a practical alternative to ice flow modelling to account for glacier size changes when modelling the future evolution of glaciers however uncertainties remain as to the validity of this approach under non steady conditions we address these uncertainties by deriving scaling exponents in the volume area relationship from one dimensional ice flow modelling we generate a set of 37 synthetic steady state glaciers of different sizes and then model their volume evolution due to climate warming and cooling as prescribed by negative and positive mass balance perturbations respectively on a century timescale the scaling exponent derived for the steady state glaciers 1 56 differs from the exponents derived for the glaciers in transient non steady state by up to 86 nevertheless volume projections employing volume area scaling are relatively insensitive to these differences in scaling exponents volume area scaling agrees well with the results from ice flow modelling in addition the scaling method is able to simulate the approach of a glacier to a new steady state if mass balance elevation feedback is approximated by removing or adding elevation bands at the lowest part of the glacier as the glacier retreats or advances if area changes are approximated in the mass balance computations in this way our results indicate that volume area scaling is a powerful tool for glacier volume projections on multi century timescales

20th century variations in area of cirque glaciers and glacierets rocky mountain national park rocky mountains colorado usa comparison of historic maps and aerial and ground based photographs for the small cirque glaciers and glacierets of rocky mountain national park in the northern front range of colorado usa indicates modest change during the 20th century the glaciers retreated through the first half of the 20th century advanced slightly from the mid 1940s to the end of the century and have retreated slightly since high interannual variability in area and temporal gaps in data complicate the trends local climate records indicate a lack of systematic change between 1950 and 1975 but significant warming afterwards local topographic effects e g wind redistribution of snow and avalanching are important influences these small glaciers respond to changes in regional climate summer temperature alone is a good predictor of the mass balance of andrews glacier r 0 93 spring snowfall is also an important factor that winter precipitation is not statistically significant supports the notion that these small glaciers gain much snow from wind drift and avalanching making winter snow accumulation almost indifferent to variations in direct snowfall less than expected glacier retreat may be due to increased summer cloudiness

snow cover snowmelt timing and stream power in the wind river range wyoming article i nfo article history earlier onset of springtime weather including earlier snowmelt has been documented in the western united states over at least the last 50 years because the majority n70 of the water supply in the western u s comes from snowmelt analysis of the declining spring snowpack and shrinking glaciers has important implications for the management of streamflow the amount of water in a snowpack influences stream discharge which can also influence erosion and sediment transport by changing stream power or the rate at which a stream can do work such as move sediment and erode the stream bed the focus of this work is the wind river range wrr in west central wyoming ten years of moderate resolution imaging spectro radiometer modis snow cover cloud gap filled cgf map products and 30 years of discharge and meteorological station data are studied streamflow data from streams in wrr drainage basins show lower annual discharge and earlier snowmelt in the decade of the 2000s than in the previous three decades though no trend of either lower streamflow or earlier snowmelt was observed within the decade of the 2000s results show a statistically significant trend at the 95 confidence level or higher of increasing weekly maximum air temperature for three out of the five meteorological stations studied in the decade of the 1970s and also for the 40 year study period as a whole the extent of snow cover percent of basin covered derived from the lowest elevation zone 2500 3000 m of the wrr using modis cgf snow cover maps is strongly correlated with maximum monthly discharge on 30 april where spearman s rank correlation rs 0 89 for the decade of the 2000s we also investigated stream power for bull lake creek above bull lake and found a trend significant at the 90 confidence level toward reduced stream power from 1970 to 2009 observed changes in streamflow and stream power may be related to increasing weekly maximum air temperature measured during the 40 year study period possibly contributing to a reduction in snow cover in addition the strong relationship between percent of basin that was snow covered and maximum monthly streamflow indicates that modis snow cover maps are useful for predicting streamflow and can be used to improve management of water resources in the drought prone western united states published by elsevier b v

anomalous early 20th century sedimentation in proglacial green lake british columbia canada annually laminated sediments were recovered from green lake a proglacial lake in the southern coast mountains in british columbia to examine their potential as a temperature proxy varve thickness is moderately correlated with temperature anomalies a d 1900 1994 and annual maximum mean daily discharge of lillooet river a d 1930 1999 but these relations are not stable through time following a d 1977 the relation between varve thickness and annual maximum mean daily discharge is stronger prior to a d 1977 varve thickness is correlated with march to october air temperature which controls the intensity and duration of glacier runoff varve thickness is weakly correlated with reconstructed air temperature records for north america and the northern hemisphere for the period a d 1600 1976 less extensive glacier cover may explain the lack of a clear temperature signal in the varved sediment record prior to a d 1600 and following a d 1977 the period of highest lake sedimentation from a d 1920 to 1945 coincides with rapid retreat of glaciers in the watershed the lack of a similar level of sedimentation in the varve chronology suggests that glacier recession during the period 1920 1945 was higher than at any time in the past 600 years

estimating south cascade glacier washington u s a mass balance from a distant radiosonde and comparison with blue glacier a simple flux model using twice daily measurements of wind humid ity and temperature from standard upper air levels in a distant radiosonde estimated winter balance of south cascade glacier over 1959 98 with error 0 24 m w e correla tion between net and winter balance is strong the model estimates net balance with error 0 53 m w e over the past 40 years average net balance of south cascade glacier has been strongly negative 0 46 m w e and it has been shrinking steadily in com parison 200 km wsw at blue glacier the average balance has been less negative 0 13 m w e that glacier has undergone little change over the 40 years balance histories of the two glaciers are positively correlated r 0 54 and south cascade has been more out of balance than blue presumably because it is still adjusting to climate change since the little ice age recent warming and drying has made the net balance of both glaciers strongly negative since 1976 0 84 m w e at south cascade 0 56 m w e at blue if south cascade glacier were in balance with the 1986 1998 climate it would be about 1 4 of its present area if conditions persist retreat of both glaciers is inevitable

little ice age proxy glacier mass balance records reconstructed from tree rings in the mt waddington area british columbia coast mountains canada the intention of this research was to explore whether dendroclimatological relationships could be used to reconstruct long term proxy records of little ice age glacier mass balance changes in the southern coast mountains of british columbia tree ring width chronologies from the mt waddington area were used in concert with historical glacier records to construct models spanning the past 450 years the approach was to build models that were based on derived relationships between tree ring growth and glacier mass balance 1 warmer temperatures in the summer positively influence tree growth but are detrimental to glacier health 2 colder temperatures during the winter and deeper snowpack have a negative impact on tree growth whereas they are related to greater accumulation on the glacier during the winter season stepwise regression analyses were applied to tree ring chronologies to predict glacier mass balance at local and regional scales the models of net annual balance for the region regional data set show that periods of positive mass balance occurred in the ad 1750s 1820s to 1830s and 1970s peaks of winter balance correspond closely to these periods showing a sharp drop in winter mass balance towards the end of the nineteenth century wavelet analyses suggest that glacial mass balance regimes in the region respond synchronously to pacific ocean circulation systems such as the el nino southern oscillation and the pacific decadal oscillation

recent glacier advances in the premier range british columbia aerial photography 1948 1985 and field investigations are used to reconstruct recent ice front fluctuations for 27 glaciers size range 0 63 17 9 km2 in the premier range british columbia rapid rates of frontal recession between ca 1930 and the mid fifties were followed by glacier readvance at many sites culminating in the 1973 1976 period when 90 of the monitored ice fronts were either advancing 68 or stable maximum downvalley advance was about 0 5 km median 90 m and 14 glaciers formed new terminal or lateral moraine ridges between 1970 and 1985 nine of these postdate 1976 one is dated to the 1980 1981 winter using tree rings the glacial advance is attributed to significant mass balance changes inferred from periods of increased winter precipitation ca 1951 1976 and low summer temperatures 1954 1968 measured at valemount warmer summers and reduced winter precipitation after 1976 account for the slight recession of ice fronts from maximum downvalley positions in the last few years

simulation of flood waves from outburst of glacier dammed lake on the upper watershed of the mendoza river at elevations higher than 4 000 m above sea level and close to the argentine chilean border a group of glaciers associated with winter snowfall give birth to runoff main sources the so called grande del nevado del plomo glacier periodically produces a surge and an ice dam that confines the plomo river valley and forms a glacier dammed lake the outflow of the ice dam and the routing of flood waves down valley are studied by means of hydrologic and hydraulic mathematical simulation for the purposes of flood wave forecasting the operation of a real time hydrologic alert system and determination of inundation maps as well as the study of the impact on diversion dams bridges roads and railroads along the river

alpine lake sediment records of the impact of glaciation and climate change on the biogeochemical cycling of soil nutrients lake sediment cores from the coast mountains of british columbia were analyzed using chemical sequential extractions to partition the dominant geochemical fractions of phosphorus p the p fractions include mineral p the original source of bioavailable p occluded p bound to soil oxides and organic p remains of organic matter by comparing p fractions of soil and recent lake sediment samples these fractions are shown to be a valid proxy for landscape scale nutrient status changes in soil development for an alpine watershed lower joffre lake are inferred from the p fractions in the basin s outlet lake sediments glacially sourced mineral p dominates at the base of the core but several rapid shifts in p geochemistry are evident in the first 3000 yr of the record the latter indicates an interval of early and rapid soil nutrient maturation from 9600 to 8500 cal yr bp and a significant influx of slope derived material into lower joffre lake a substantial increase in mineral p occurs at ca 8200 cal yr bp consistent with the cold event in the vicinity of the north atlantic at that time the more recent record reveals a continual increase in the proportion of mineral p from glacial sources to the lake indicating a trend toward cooler conditions in the coast mountains

the record of density induced underflows in a glacial lake as part of an overall study of sedimentation processes in a proglacial lake an effort was made to compare field results with some of the general equations for density flows the results suggest that in relatively small glacial lakes the occurrence of underflows with lower sediment loads involves a complex interplay between thermal and sediment effects which is extremely sensitive to varying hydrologic and climatic conditions in terms of actual transport mechanics the results i indicate that a higher value of 0 6 or 0 7 gives a closer agreement between the measured velocity values and the established equations on moderately shallow slopes ii provide field support for the experimentally derived relationship of britter linden 1980 for the velocity of underflows and suggest the equation may be applicable in situations below 5 slopes and iii support the relationship between velocity of the front and body of a continuous underflow for moderate slope situations suggested by middleton 1966b finally the velocity values measured by electromagnetic current meters stationed in the lake the grain size data obtained from mapping core data and the application of other criteria support the concept that in this environment the underflows are capable of erosion

chemical weathering in the foreland of a retreating glacier chemical denudation rates and strontium isotope ratios in streams vary substantially and systematically in the foreland of the retreating bench glacier in south central alaska to study weathering of young glacier sediments we sampled 12 streams draining a chronosequence of till and moraine soils derived from cretaceous metagraywacke metapelite bedrock both sediment age and vegetation cover increase with distance from the glacier cation denudation rates decline with increasing distance from the glacier whereas silica denudation rates increase carbonate dissolution and sulfide oxidation account for roughly 90 of the solute flux from the youngest sediments biotite alteration accounts for 5 11 of the solute flux its peak contribution is found in the glacier outlet stream silicate weathering is the dominant reaction only in the oldest sediments in a laboratory dissolution experiment using fresh glacial sediment carbonate dissolution dominated the solute flux during the first 700 hours paralleling the behavior of young sediments in the field in contrast to trends in the field the silica flux did not increase after the carbonate was exhausted from the reactor a possible reason for this difference is that establishment of vegetation causes an increase in silicate weathering the 87sr 86sr ratio in the glacier outlet stream is greater than that in proglacial streams and in bulk rock due to a greater contribution of biotite weathering in the outlet than in proglacial streams strontium isotope ratios decline with sediment exposure age in the proglacial streams and are consistent with a carbonate source because the dominant weathering reactions in the young sediments are of carbonate and sulfide rather than silicate minerals weathering at the glacier margin is not an important long term sink for atmospheric co2

an overview of recent large catastrophic landslides in northern british columbia canada at least thirty eight large catastrophic landslides each either larger than 0 5 m m 3 or longer than 1 km have occurred in northern british columbia in the last three decades the landslides include low gradient flowslides in cohesive sediments long runout rock slides rock avalanches and complex rock slide flows the flowslides have occurred in a variety of sediments including glaciolacustrine silt clay rich till and clay rich colluvium the rock failures have happened in weak shale overlain by sandstone and volcanic rocks the frequency of large landslides in northern british columbia appears to be increasing suggesting a link to climate change d 2005 elsevier b v all rights reserved

catastrophic lake drainage within the homathko river basin british columbia three distinct phenomena related to sudden lake drainage which occurred in a restricted area within the southern coast mountains of british columbia are described i moraine breaching by solita

the arctic oscillation signature in the wintertime geopotential height and temperature fields the leading empirical orthogonal function of the wintertime sea level pressure field is more strongly coupled to surface air temperature fluctuations over the eurasian continent than the north atlantic oscillation nao it resembles the nao in many respects but its primary center of action covers more of the arctic giving it a more zonally symmetric appearance coupled to strong fluctuations at the 50 hpa level on the intraseasonal interannual and interdecadal time scales this arctic oscillation ao can be interpreted as the surface signature of modulations in the strength of the polar vortex aloft it is proposed that the zonally asymmetric surface air temperature and mid tropospheric circulation anomalies observed in association with the ao may be secondary baroclinic features induced by the land sea contrasts the same modal structure is mirrored in the pronounced trends in winter and springtime surface air temperature sea level pressure and 50 hpa height over the past 30 years parts of eurasia have warmed by as much as several k sea level pressure over parts of the arctic has fallen by 4 hpa and the core of the lower stratospheric polar vortex has cooled by several k these trends can be interpreted as the development of a systematic bias in one of the atmosphere s dominant naturally occurring modes of variability

u s streamflow patterns in relation to the el nino southern oscillation the relationship between the el nino southern oscillation enso and unimpaired streamflow over the contiguous united states is studied the extreme phases of the southern oscillation have been linked to fairly persistent classes of atmospheric anomalies over the low and middle latitudes at regional and global scales of particular interest in this investigation is the identification of regions of land that appear to have strong and consistent enso related streamflow signals the first harmonic extracted from a 24 month enso composite at each station is assumed to be the enso related signal appearing in streamflow anomalies these regions were identified by the similarity in phase of the harmonic vectors the vectorial display of these harmonics over a map of the united states provides the areal extents of enso influence on streamflow coherent and significant streamflow responses to hypothesized enso forcing are found in four regions of the united states the gulf of mexico the northeast the north central and the pacific northwest once an enso event sets in a long range forecasting utility may be available for these regions the results of this analysis which are consistent with previous studies on precipitation and temperature demonstrate the mid latitude hydrologic response to the tropical enso phenomena

rapid wastage of alaska glaciers and their contribution to rising sea level we have used airborne laser altimetry to estimate volume changes of 67 glaciers in alaska from the mid 1950s to the mid 1990s the average rate of thickness change of these glaciers was 0 52 m year extrapolation to all glaciers in alaska yields an estimated total annual volume change of 52 15 km 3 year water equivalent equivalent to a rise in sea level sle of 0 14 0 04 mm year repeat measurements of 28 glaciers from the mid 1990s to 2000 2001 suggest an increased average rate of thinning 1 8 m year this leads to an extrapolated annual volume loss from alaska glaciers equal to 96 35 km 3 year or 0 27 0 10 mm year sle during the past decade these recent losses are nearly double the estimated annual loss from the entire greenland ice sheet during the same time period and are much higher than previously published loss estimates for alaska glaciers they form the largest glaciological contribution to rising sea level yet measured

reconstructing hydro climatic events and glacier fluctuations over the past millennium from annually laminated sediments of cheakamus lake southern coast mountains british columbia canada abstract we recovered sediment cores from cheakamus lake in the southern coast mountains southwest british columbia to reconstruct late holocene environmental conditions in the watershed the cored sediments are inorganic rhythmically laminated clayey silt radiocarbon ages and correlation of lamina thickness with the magnitude of the annual flood recorded at a nearby gauging station indicate that the laminae are varves we discriminate seven types of varves on the basis of couplet thickness and internal structure and compare them to annual hydrographs over the period of record the seven varve types record summer snowmelt floods autumn floods mid season floods years with two major floods years with three major floods years with more than three major floods and periods of sustained glacier runoff varves attributed to autumn storms and glacier runoff are dominant exhibit serial dependence and are most common during six periods ad 1300 1320 1380 1410 1470 1500 1710 1730 1880 1906 and 1916 1945 in contrast varves attributed to summer snowmelt floods are randomly distributed through time thickest varves occur during the decades ad 1090 1110 1120 1170 1210 1250 1310 1330 1390 1450 1720 1780 1860 1900 and 1920 1945 the relation between little ice age glacier activity and lake sedimentation is complex but the thickest varves coincide with times of rapid glacier retreat and periods when air temperatures were warmer than average the results confirm the importance of sediment transfers during the summer and autumn runoff season in the british columbia coast mountains

chemical weathering in glacial environments do glaciers enhance or inhibit chemical weathering rates relative to other environments the importance of glaciers in the global carbon cycle and climate change hinges on the answer we show that catchments occupied by active alpine glaciers yield cation denudation rates greater than the global mean rate but do not exceed rates in nonglacial catchments with similar water discharge silica denudation rates are distinctly lower in glacier covered catchments than in their nonglacial counterparts because sediment yields are high from glaciers this suggests that water flux rather than physical erosion exerts the primary control on chemical erosion by glaciers potassium and calcium concentrations are high relative to other cations in glacial water probably due to dissolution of soluble trace phases such as carbonates exposed by comminution and cation leaching from biotite preferential weathering of biotite may result in higher 87 sr 86 sr in glacial runoff than expected from whole rock compositions thus although glaciers do not influence total chemical denudation rates at a given runoff they may yield compositionally distinctive chemical fluxes to the oceans disruption of mineral lattices by grinding increases dissolution rates this and high surface area should make glacial sediments exceptionally weatherable weathering of glacial erosion products in environments beyond the glacier margin deserves attention because it may figure prominently in global chemical cycles

the little ice age in the canadian rockies abstract this paper reviews the evidence and history of glacier fluctuations during the little ice age lia in the canadian rockies episodes of synchronous glacier advance occurred in the 12th 13th early 18th and throughout the 19th centuries regional ice cover was probably greatest in the mid 19th century although in places the early 18th century advance was more extensive glaciers have lost over 25 of their area in the 20th century selective preservation of the glacier record furnishes an incomplete chronology of events through the 14th 17th centuries in contrast varve sequences provide continuous annually resolved records of sediments for at least the last millennium in some highly glacierized catchments such records have been used to infer glacier fluctuations evaluation of recent proxy climate reconstructions derived from tree rings provides independent evidence of climate fluctuations over the last millennium most regional glacier advances follow periods of reduced summer temperatures reconstructed from tree rings particularly ca 1190 1250 1280 1340 1690s and the 1800s reconstructed periods of higher precipitation at banff alberta since 1500 are 1515 1550 1585 1610 1660 1680 and the 1880s glacier advances in the early 1700s the late 1800s and in places the 1950 1970s reflect both increased precipitation and reduced summer temperatures negative glacier mass balances from 1976 to 1995 were caused by decreased winter balances the glacier fluctuation record does not contain a simple climate signal it is a complex response to several interacting factors that operate at different timescales evaluation of climate proxies over the last millennium indicates continuous variability at several superimposed timescales dominated by decade century patterns only the 19th century shows a long interval of sustained cold summers this suggests that simplistic concepts of climate over this period should be abandoned and replaced with more realistic records based on continuous proxy data series the use of the term lia should be restricted to describing a period of extended glacier cover rather than being used to define a period with specific climate conditions

hydro meteorological drivers and sources of suspended sediment flux in the pro glacial zone of the retreating castle creek glacier cariboo mountains british columbia canada glaciers are major agents of erosion that increase sediment load to the downstream fluvial system the castle creek glacier british columbia canada has retreated 1 0 km in the past 70 years suspended sediment concentration ssc and streamflow q were monitored independently at five sites within its pro glacial zone over a 60 day period from july to september 2011 representing part of the ablation season meteorological data were collected from two automatic weather stations proximal to the glacier the time series were divided into hydrologic days and the shape and magnitude of the ssc response to hydro meteorological conditions cold and wet hot and dry warm and damp and storm were categorized using principal component analysis pca and cluster analysis ca suspended sediment load ssl was computed and summarized for the categories the distribution of monitoring sites and results of the multivariate statistical analyses describe the temporal and spatial variability of suspended sediment flux and the relative importance of glacial and para glacial sediment sources in the pro glacial zone during the 2011 study period 60 of the total ssl was derived from the glacial stream and sediment deposits proximal to the terminus of the glacier during storm events that contribution dropped to 40 as the contribution from diffuse and point sources of sediment throughout the pro glacial zone and within the meltwater channels increased while storm events accounted for just 3 of the study period ssl was 600 higher than the average over the monitoring period and 20 of the total ssl was generated in that time determining how hydro meteorological conditions and sediment sources control sediment fluxes will assist attempts to predict how pro glacial zones respond to future climate changes copyright 2015 john wiley sons ltd

extending the place glacier mass balance record to ad 1585 using tree rings and wood density abstract recognizing that climate influences both annual tree ring growth and glacier mass balance changes in the mass balance of place glacier british columbia were documented from increment core records annually resolved ring width rw maximum mxd and mean density md chronologies were developed from engelmann spruce and douglas fir trees sampled at sites within the surrounding region a snowpack record dating to ad 1730 was reconstructed using a multivariate regression of spruce md and fir rw chronologies spruce mxd and rw chronologies were used to reconstruct winter mass balance bw for place glacier to ad 1585 summer mass balance bs was reconstructed using the rw chronology from spruce and net balance was calculated from bw and bs the reconstructions provide insight into the changes that snowpack and mass balance have undergone in the last 400 years as well as identifying relationships to air temperature and circulation indices in southern british columbia these changes are consistent with other regional mass balance reconstructions and indicate that the persistent weather systems characterizing large scale climate forcing mechanisms play a significant glaciological role in this region a comparison to dated moraine surfaces in the surrounding region substantiates that the mass balance shifts recorded in the proxy data are evident in the response of glaciers throughout the region

glacier change of the columbia icefield canadian rocky mountains 1919 2009 we determined length area elevation and volume change of the columbia icefield using interprovincial boundary commission survey maps from 1919 eight sets of aerial photographs from 1948 to 1993 and satellite data from 1999 to 2009 over the period 1919 2009 glaciers on average retreated 1150 34 m and shrank by 2 4 0 2 km 2 total area loss was 59 6 1 2 km 2 23 5 and mean elevation change was 49 25 m w e resulting in a total volume loss of 14 3 2 0 km 3 w e large outlet glaciers experienced the greatest absolute ice loss while small detached glaciers lost the most relative length and area thinning rates of debris covered ice were 30 60 lower than those for clean ice all glacier changes were significantly correlated with each other p 0 01 with r values ranging from 0 54 to 0 82 temperature is correlated with length and area change over periods lagged 1 5 years p 0 05 and with elevation and volume change over periods lagged 9 18 years p 0 05 precipitation is correlated with glacier change over periods lagged 1 10 years p 0 05

debris flow initiation in proglacial gullies on mount rainier washington article i nfo effects of climate change retreating glaciers and changing storm patterns on debris flow hazards concern managers in the cascade range usa and mountainous areas worldwide during an intense rainstorm in november 2006 seven debris flows initiated from proglacial gullies of separate basins on the flanks of mount rainier gully heads at glacier termini and widespread failure of gully walls imply that overland flow was trans formed into debris flow along gullies we characterized gully change and morphology and assessed spatial distributions of debris flows to infer the processes and conditions for debris flow initiation slopes at gully heads were greater than 0 35 m m 1 19 and exhibited a significant negative relationship with drainage area a break in slope drainage area trends among debris flow gullies also occurs at 0 35 m m 1 representing a possible transition to fluvial sediment transport and erosion an interpreted hybrid model of debris flow initi ation involves bed failure near gully heads followed by sediment recruitment from gully walls along gully lengths estimates of sediment volume loss from gully walls demonstrate the importance of sediment inputs along gullies for increasing debris flow volumes basin comparisons revealed significantly steeper drainage networks and higher elevations in debris flow producing than non debris flow producing proglacial areas the high slopes and elevations of debris flow producing proglacial areas reflect positive slope elevation trends for the mount rainier volcano glacier extent therefore controls the slope distribution in proglacial areas and thus potential for debris flow generation as a result debris flow activity may increase as glacier termini retreat onto slopes inclined at angles above debris flow initiation thresholds

toward hydro social modeling merging human variables and the social sciences with climate glacier runoff models santa river peru summary glacier shrinkage caused by climate change is likely to trigger diminished and less consistent stream flow in glacier fed watersheds worldwide to understand model and adapt to these climate glacier water changes it is vital to integrate the analysis of both water availability the domain of hydrologists and water use the focus for social scientists drawn from a case study of the santa river watershed below peru s glaciated cordillera blanca mountain range this paper provides a holistic hydro social framework that identifies five major human variables critical to hydrological modeling because these forces have profoundly influenced water use over the last 60 years 1 political agendas and economic development 2 governance laws and institutions 3 technology and engineering 4 land and resource use and 5 societal responses notable shifts in santa river water use including major expansions in hydroelectricity generation large scale irrigation projects and other land and resource use practices did not necessarily stem from changing glacier runoff or hydrologic shifts but rather from these human variables ultimately then water usage is not predictable based on water availability alone glacier runoff conforms to certain expected trends predicted by models of progressively reduced glacier storage however societal forces establish the legal economic political cultural and social drivers that actually shape water usage patterns via human modification of watershed dynamics this hydro social framework has widespread implications for hydrological modeling in glaciated watersheds from the andes and alps to the himalaya and tien shan as well as for the development of climate change adaptation plans