Northern Convergence: Athabasca Glacier, at the Front Line of Climate Change

Athabasca Glacier and Sunwapta Lake in July 2014

Athabasca Glacier in Jasper National Park is one of the few places in the world where one can drive to a glacier. It is also one of the most vivid places to see the global warming in action.

We were in the midst of our Northern Convergence journey through British Columbia and Alberta last July when we pulled up at the visitor center for the Columbia Icefield. Up to this point we had seen a large number of small glaciers tucked away in the high peaks of Yoho and Banff National Parks, and we had seen plentiful evidence of past glaciations at nearly all the localities we had been visiting over the previous six days. But here at Athabasca Glacier, we were confronted with ice. Lots of ice, just a short distance from the end of the road. It was not unlike stepping out of a time machine into the last ice age.

Athabasca Glacier in 1919. Sunwapta Lake does not yet exist.

One of the first issues that we were confronted with is global climate change. The Earth is warming up at an alarming rate, and the warming couldn't be made clearer than the fact that Athabasca Glacier is shrinking. Since the 1800s the glacier has receded more than a mile, forming a new lake, Sunwapta. It was visibly shorter than it was on my last visit in 2005 (see a comparison below).

We took in a brief overview of the glacier from the visitor center complex along the highway. We then crossed the highway and parked at the base of the rocky knob in the photo above.

We started up the trail, which was steep in a few spots, but not overly difficult. 

Looking behind as we climbed the slope we could see Sunwapta Lake, which did not exist prior to a few decades ago. Note the barren flats. There should be trees growing at this altitude, but the rocky debris and till has not had time to develop soils. This is a newly exposed landscape.

A marker along the trail appeared. It's message was rather stark. Only three decades ago, ice covered this spot.

The bedrock marks the passage of the ice in the form of striations (scratch marks from sand particles in the ice), and grooves.

We reached the top of the hill, where the ice existed as recently as 1992. Despite the decline in the size of the glacier, it is still an impressive sight. The ice ranges in thickness from 300 to 1,000 feet (roughly 100 to 300 meters). The crevasses mark the places where the ice is moving over a steep dropoff.

Large lateral moraines line the sides of the glacier. If it were not receding so rapidly, it would also have a terminal moraine around the end.

As we approached the terminus, we could see the swollen river of meltwater emerging from the ice. The river blocked easy access to the ice. There were a few boards to make a rudimentary bridge, but sternly worded signs warned of the dangers of actually going out onto the ice itself. Death, you know, from falling into crevasses and through thin ice (and yes, it happens).

Compare this photo to a shot from the same spot in 2005, below

The entire area covered by the river water had been covered at the time of my visit in 2005. Getting on the ice was easier, even encouraged, at the time. Not anymore.

Athabasca Glacier terminus in 2005

Much of the snout of the glacier was covered with dirt, boulders and debris exposed as the glacier melts.

The glacier is "fed" by the Columbia Icefield, a vast expanse of ice covering 125 square miles (325 square kilometers) between some of the highest peaks of the Canadian Rockies. Six major glaciers flow from the huge mass of ice coating the high divide. Meltwater from the glaciers flows to the both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, as well as Hudson Bay and to the Arctic Ocean (thanks, Howard, for the correction). The icefield lies east of a gap in the Columbia Mountains that allows Pacific storms to drop prodigious amounts of snow each year, around 30 feet (ten meters).

In some places the chunks of ice simple fall off the cliffs into the cirques below. I saw one of these icefalls on my earlier visit, and was watching closely this time around, but no dice this year.

At the rate that the glacier is receding, it will probably be gone by the end of the century. There can hardly be a starker piece of evidence that the Earth's climate is warming. It is as plain as the nose on  one's face, unless you are a politician whose re-election depends on funding from lobbying groups who are paying you to be blind.

We returned to our vehicles and drove down the Icefields Parkway to a new destination: the High Plains of Alberta. We were on the trail to find some dinosaurs...more later.

Northern Convergence: The Incredible Lakes and Glaciers of Banff National Park

Moraine Lake in Banff National Park. Beautiful, but crowded! It's tourist central, along with nearby Lake Louise.

So...what do you get when you take incredibly thick layers of limestone, sandstone and shale that were deposited on the ancient edge of a continent and press them together really hard? Very long story short, you get the Canadian Rockies and Banff National Park. The compression occurred because of the convergent forces around the subduction zone on the west coast of North America during the last 200 million years. In the region of the Rockies, slab after slab of sedimentary rock was pushed up and over the adjacent slabs, producing a rugged landscape of thrust faults and linear ranges of limestone  and sandstone (see the diagram below).

Structure of the Canadian Rockies, courtesy of an interpretive sign at Moraine Lake (I was too lazy to try and sketch it out)

Add in the effect of widespread glaciation during the geologically recent ice ages (the last two million years), and you get a spectacular landscape of jagged rocky peaks and beautiful turquoise lakes. Our field class had been spending most of the day in equally beautiful Yoho National Park, but as the shadows lengthened in the afternoon we headed over Kicking Horse Pass into Banff National Park. Our first stop was Moraine Lake, a lake that may or may not have a moraine.

Moraines are piles and ridges of glacial debris (till) that form around the margins and edges (and sometimes the interior of) alpine glaciers. Moraine Lake, one of the epicenters of tourist activity at Banff, has a most unusual looking moraine. The rocks are almost uniformly large and slabby as if they came from a single source area or cliff. They don't look like a typical moraine at all.

The "moraine" at Moraine Lake. It is more likely a rockfall deposit that may or may not have been transported to the terminus by the movement of glacial ice.

It looks like the feature is either a landslide from the adjacent cliff that blocked off and dammed the lake, or it is a landslide that fell onto the glacier somewhere upstream and was slowly carried to the end of the glacier where it formed into the distinctive mass as the ice melted away.

Small glacier above Moraine Lake

Small glaciers clung to the high peaks above us. The glacier in the picture above ended at a cliff. As it moves forward, large chunks of glacial ice will tumble down the steep slopes.

Our evening was spent in a hotel with a glorious view of the peaks above the Banff Townsite. So what did we spend our time doing? Laundry, of course! The view provides a marvelous perspective down the length of the strike valleys carved out along the thrust faults that pushed these mountains upwards.

The next day we started north on the Icefields Parkway to get up close and personal with some glaciers and the lakes that have made Banff and Jasper such famous parks. Our first stop was at Bow Lake and Bow Glacier. Like many others, Bow Glacier has been retreating since the late 1800s, and until around 1930 the glacier extended over the cliff. Today there is a prominent hanging valley and waterfall where the glacier once flowed. Total retreat has been about 0.6 miles.

Bow Lake was otherworldly in the calm conditions of the morning. We passed it later in the day and with the winds having picked up, it was completely different. The lake does not have the distinctive turquoise color of most glacial lakes, which arises from the very fine flour-like clay that remains suspended in the water. Since the early 1930s there has been a small tarn (glacially carved lake) at the base of the glacier that has been capturing the sediments before they can flow down into the larger lake.

Bow Lake on the Icefields Parkway in Banff National Park

Later in the day we had a look at one of the most iconic views in all of Banff National Park, that of Peyto Lake (and the Peyto glacier). The lake is justly famous for the turquoise color, which as mentioned above is from finely ground silt and clay suspended in the water. The setting is made all the more grand from the steep rugged cliffs and the long linear strike valley in the distance.

Looking west we could see the Peyto Glacier that feeds the lake. Like Bow Lake, the glacier has retreated during the last century by the same amount, about 0.6 miles. The glacier is actually a composite of two glaciers that flowed together. The black line of debris in the center is the place where the glaciers joined, forming a debris line called a medial moraine.

The lakes and glaciers at a distance are wonderful to see, but we were after a more intimate experience with the glacial ice. Our goal for the day was the Columbia Icefield and a stroll around the base of the park's most accessible glacier, Athabasca. That will be the subject of a near-future post.

If the pace of posting has seemed low of late, that would be because I'm in the midst of field trip season, with a trip to the eastern Sierra Nevada a week and a half ago, a trip to Lake Tahoe last weekend, and a trip starting tomorrow to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. The trips keep me busy, but also provide a lot of material to post! See you again on Monday or Tuesday!

That Such Places Exist Unsullied...I am Grateful

“After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn’t it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it? This is how I answer when I am asked—as I am surprisingly often—why I bother to get up in the mornings.”

                                                                                                        Richard Dawkins

Geotripper is back! We are home from a glorious journey through British Columbia, Alberta, Montana and Washington. It was a stunning landscape with a fascinating geological story. A detailed series of posts of course will follow, but for today, I am sharing examples of some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world.

Indian Paintbrush in Yoho National Park

Emerald Lake, Yoho National Park

Takkakaw Falls, Yoho National Park

Mt. Rundle, Banff National Park

Bow Lake and Glacier, Banff National Park

Athabasca Glacier, Jasper National Park

Peyto Lake, Banff National Park

Drumheller Badlands in Dinosaur Country

Marmot at Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump Park in Alberta

Clements Mountain near Logan Pass in Glacier National Park

Bighorn Sheep at Logan Pass

Rocky Mountain Goats near Logan Pass

Mt. Adams from Sunrise Point, Mt. Rainier National Park

“Travel is like love, mostly because it’s a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed. That is why the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end.” Pico Iyer

Geology and Politics: Trying to Get Back To Normal...

A kind of 'mini-meme' developed in the last few days as many geobloggers from the U.S. (and a few others, I'm sure) were carefully watching the returns from the presidential elections. It has involved the relationship of geology to politics.


Brian at Clastic Detritus noticed a correspondence between counties who increased their Republican vote, and the location of the Appalachian Orogen. No geologic explanation for the Arizona vote is clear, however.


Eric at Dynamic Earth noted some shocking deficiencies on the part of one of the candidates on her ignorance of Africa and the signatories to NAFTA (the North America Free Trade Agreement; there are only three countries in North America to choose from...). Admittedly, this post is more about geography, but there is a 'geo' in there. [UPDATE: I sort of fail the "three countries in NA; there are quite a few island nations and territories, i.e. Greenland, Bermudas, etc. that are included with North America. I was thinking in continental terms]

Callan Bentley at NOVA Geoblog has a link to a map of the US that is tied not to geography, but to the proportion and influence of voters. If you thought the election was crazy, this map is on drugs. BTW, way to go Virginia!

In my last post I was using a flood analogy to express my hopes for the outcome of the election, talking also of landslides and tsunamis. It gave me this great idea of blogging on the use of geologic terms in describing politics and other social phenomena. I started to develop the idea in more detail, and then happened upon Lee Allison's Arizona Geology blog. He beat me to the punch in a big way: check it out here, and here. Lee also has a couple of great posts on politicians who started out as geologists, here and here. I had no idea that Colin Powell had a geology degree, but I bet it helped during the planning for the first Iraq war. Herbert Hoover I knew about; I remember reading a story of his fight for reimbursement from the USGS:

"A favorite story deals with his job as disbursing officer for a United States Geological Survey party. When a pack mule was found dead, the rules required Hoover and two witnesses to investigate the cause of death. They found a loose hind shoe caught in the animal's neck halter. So they reported that it had broken its neck while scratching its head with a hind foot. The bureau in Washington refused to accept this “tall story,” and charged the party $60 for the lost animal. From that time on Hoover watched mules to confirm the fact that they could scratch their heads with a hind foot."

I hope this gets the politics out of my system for now. I know I am sick and need help; this morning I actually clicked on this:

http://www.pollster.com/blogs/marist_matchups_for_the_2012_p.php

Go ahead, I dare you.....

Today's photo represents change happening "at a glacial pace", and shows the Saskatchewan Glacier in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. It has a source in the Columbia Icefield, and along with the Athabasca Glacier shows the effects of global warming, having retreated over a mile in the last century.