Fall 2006 - The Alpine Club of Canada

Researchers study Juneau Icefi eld
BY PABLO WAINSTEIN
Wind started to blow and I
felt the chills on my back.
My partners and I had been
working all day on Taku Glacier on
Alaska’s Juneau Icefi eld, digging snow
pits and setting up ablation stakes to
measure the losses and gains of snow
and ice of the icefi eld. Known as a mass
balance, the process requires digging
several snow pits four or fi ve metres
deep to see how much snow is left from
the previous year’s snowfall. After the
fi rst layer from the previous winter is
determined, its depth is measured and
snow samples are taken from the pit wall
to calculate the snow’s density and water
equivalency. Covering about 671 square
kilometres, with a maximum depth of
about 1400 m, Taku Glacier is considered
a maritime temperate glacier because it
is located near the ocean coastline and its
ice is on average 0°C from the surface to
the bottom.
As a member of the Juneau Icefi eld
Research Program ( JIRP), I am part of
a research team that works in a huge
and awesome outdoor lab. Watching
water carve its way through ice, building
a piping system that looks almost as
Pablo Wainstein conducts ground penetrating
radar surveys to determine the glacier’s depth and
inner hydrology. SUBMITTED PHOTO
complicated a Swiss cheese, I have
worked on several glaciers in Alaska,
Alberta, British Columbia, the Andes
and Patagonia. In all those places, glaciers
share a common denominator – they are
retreating.
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In 1946, a young PhD student named
Maynard M. Miller, full of energy and
a keen interest in understanding the
frozen world around us, decided to
begin research on the Juneau Icefi eld,
which stretches from Juneau, Alaska to
the southern limits of Atlin Lake BC.
He formed a group of researchers and
mountaineers in order to explore and
trace access routes onto Taku Glacier.
After struggling through the Alaskan
bush they were astonished with what
they saw – an enormous natural lab to
study glaciers. Th e expedition was very
successful, triggering the formation of
the JIRP, one of the world’s longest
research and educational programs in
glaciology. With slightly more than 60
years of operation, thousands of students
haven gone through the program, and
many prosperous research careers have
developed.
Based in Juneau, every year the
program receives students from Canada,
the U.S. and other parts of the world
interested in learning about natural
systems, glaciology and climatology, and
more importantly to gain experience in
fi eldwork. After spending some days in
Juneau, traveling around the Mendenhall
and Herbert Glaciers, students, staff
and researchers begin their long journey
that for years has been done by foot
and ski across the icefi eld. Supplies and
equipment are fl own in by helicopter.
Along the route, JIRP has established
several research stations that enable
safe and eff ective fi eldwork. Alaska can
sometimes present such hostile weather
that research is hindered by the needs
of survival during the eight weeks of the
program.
Years ago, much more time was
dedicated to normal daily routines.
Nowadays, thanks to the facilities and
organization, researchers can dedicate
more eff ective time to their teaching and
fi eld experiences. Th e group stays two
weeks per station. As the team moves
forward into the icefi eld toward the town
of Atlin BC, the weather becomes drier
and more comfortable. Near the icefi eld’s
northern limits, where the landscape
has been transformed by retreating
glaciers, nights are sometimes coloured
by vibrant northern lights. Countless
diff erent geomorphologic features such
as moraines, lakes and rivers have evolved
due to the warming period the earth is
suff ering.
As glaciers advanced during colder
climate periods of past geological history,
ice eroded the valley bottoms and
sides, scraping out material that then
accumulated at the front or margins
of the glacier. Later, during periods
of warmer climate, ice bodies began
retreating, leaving behind elongated
accumulations of debris – moraines –
which sometimes act as natural dams that
incite the collection of meltwater forming
a pro glacial lake. Th ese are common in
the Canadian Rockies.
Th rough JIRP’s 60 years of research,
glaciers have been retreating drastically.
Camp 10, one of JIRP’s largest stations on the Juneau Icefi eld, accommodating up to 50 people, has been
the main camp for the research program’s operations throughout its history. PHOTO BY PABLO WAINSTEIN