Posted on 03/27/2006 8:23:53 PM PST by quantim
PORTLAND, Ore. – The seven largest of Mount Hood's 11 glaciers have shrunk by an average of more than 30 percent since the beginning of the last century, according to calculations by a Portland State University graduate student.
Keith Jackson, who is part of a glacier research team financed by the National Science Foundation and NASA, estimates that Sandy Glacier, on Mount Hood's west slopes facing Portland, covers about 60 percent less ground than it did a century ago and Eliot Glacier has lost at least half of its ice in the last 100 years.
And scientists think glaciers might recede faster in the coming century because of warmer temperatures. Average low temperatures at Eliot Glacier have been above freezing during at least six of the last 12 years, more than any such period in the last 110 years, according to Oregon Climate Service calculations.
Scientists in the University of Washington's Climate Impacts Group predict the Northwest will warm nearly as much in the next 20 years as it has in the last 100, about a degree Fahrenheit.
“It's almost universal that all glaciers are retreating,” said Peter Clark, an Oregon State University professor who's an authority on glaciers. “The signs of retreat are dramatic and accelerating.”
It signals that “the cause of that change is overwhelming other factors,” he said. “The fingerprint of global warming is increasing on a global scale.”
Studies that show the glaciers receding do not surprise climbers of Mount Hood, who say they now skip certain routes to the summit because rocks and ice once locked solidly in place now break loose.
“Warming and the receding glaciers are very much affecting the recreation potential and the dangerousness of it on all sides of the mountain,” said Vera Dafoe, who has long led hikes on the mountain for the Mazamas. “It has changed enormously.”
cool
now is there any oil there can we drill for it bring on the pumps
If France is retreating them someone must be on the advance...
I was at Mt Hood last July, there were snowboarders there.
I'm from the northeast.
Now THAT is a Frikken mountain!
After all, he is destroying them by not signing Kyoto.
And for those to dense to get this. Yes, I am being sarcastic.
There are as many, if not more, glaciers expanding that are never mentioned.
Mount St. Helens glacier (Crater Glacier) growing 50 feet per year. September 20, 2004 - “Today, the snow and ice in the crater is equal in volume to all of the pre-eruption glaciers on Mount St. Helens combined," says a brochure published by the US Forest Service.”
Located inside the volcanic crater formed during its 1980 eruption, America’s youngest glacier is also its fastest growing glacier. Scientists estimate that the thickness of the glacier has increased by nearly 50 feet per year. Not only is it growing thicker, it has been advancing as much as 135 feet per year.
Why is no one bothering to tell us about this?
Funny. The last show on Mt. Hood I saw blamed the melting glaciers on activity in the magma chamber.
There is nothing we can do. The world isn't going to flood. We will deal with problems as they develop.
Ping for Cascade Peaks
Finished it, truly an inspiring book. Great story, and the FACTS explain a lot. You cannot read it and remain un-impressed by Crichton's intellect; and learn more than a little bit in the process as well.
Key bit of learning. Nature changes, it always has, it always will.
Bush's fault?
Ya think they can send us some of the melt water?
Gee Iwonder if they investigated the fact that glaciers go through cycles of Melt down and Freeze up. They might have some history on it, would they say?
Ops4 God Bless America!
Uh, Mt Hood is a volcano. It can get warm when a volcano gets active.
"On clear, cold, windless days, a steam plume is often seen rising from the fumaroles. Visitors to Mount Hood frequently smell the "rotten egg" odor of the fumarole gas, whose composition indicates that magma lies a few miles below the summit."
"Twelve glaciers and named snowfields cover approximately 80 percent of the cone above the 2,100-meter level and contain about 0.35 cubic kilometers of ice. Most of the glaciers have remained roughly constant in size over the last few decades, after retreating from a neo-glacial maximum early in the 18th century. Modern glacier termini are at about 2,100 meters, but in the last major alpine glaciation (Fraser, about 29-10 thousand years ago) glaciers reached the 700-800 meter level. During this time, ice spread 15 kilometers from the summit area."
-- American Geophysical Union Field Trip Guidebook
If Bush would just give some money to the UN, then the glaciers would not feel the need to run away anymore. But no, he does not care about the glaciers and just keeps on making them melt. It's just like him sending hurricanes into Democrat Party terrority to kill Black people.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.