The Star: March 22, 2018

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Thursday March 22 2018
Hot summer catastrophic for glaciers
Fire rages, homes at risk
CANTERBURY University
researchers monitoring glacier
mass have confirmed this
summer’s extreme heat has been
catastrophic for alpine glaciers.
A team from the university, led
by glaciologist and Geography
senior lecturer Dr Heather
Purdie, hiked into the Rolleston
Glacier in Arthur’s Pass National
Park for their annual end-ofsummer
glacier survey.
They found, as a consequence
of this summer’s extreme heat,
the Rolleston Glacier has lost
nearly all of the snow that accumulated
on it during the previous
year.
“This is likely the most
negative mass balance year ever
recorded on this glacier,” Dr
Purdie said
“Glaciers are great indicators
of climate change. This summer
was very warm and as a
consequence New Zealand alpine
glaciers are in very bad shape –
they have lost a huge amount of
snow and ice to melting over the
summer.”
Dr Purdie and adjunct geography
academic Dr Tim Kerr,
with the help of volunteers, have
regularly measured the Rolleston
Glacier since 2010.
Each year they hike into the
glacier at the end of winter and
BEFORE: The Rolleston Glacier in February 2016, with a lot of
snow on the glacier and surrounding slopes. The snow line,
the line between the previous winter’s snow and the bare ice is
clearly visible on the glacier surface. PHOTO: TIM KERR
again at the end of summer to
dig snow-pits, measure snow
depth, and install stakes that
measure how much snow and ice
melts off the glacier during the
summer.
This year the survey revealed
nearly all of the previous season’s
snow had melted off the glacier.
The team also recovered monitoring
stakes that had been buried
in the glacier back in 2014.
“This was significant as it
indicates that during this summer
not only has the glacier lost
all of last winter’s snow, but also
snow that had accumulated on
the glacier in previous years,” Dr
Purdie said.
“The only snow left on the
Rolleston Glacier was snow that
had avalanched down onto the
AFTER: This photo shows the
very dirty ice surface of the
Rolleston Glacier last week,
with no remaining snow. The
small cones of avalanched
snow can be seen at the very
extreme edges of the glacier.
PHOTO: HEATHER PURDIE
glacier from the surrounding
mountain peaks. Without this
avalanche input, the glacier
would have had no snow left at
all.”
Although New Zealand has
more than 3000 glaciers, only
two have ongoing monitoring
programmes where the mass
balance, or health of the glacier,
is directly measured.
Data from this monitoring
programme contributes to
the World Glacier Monitoring
Database – a global data base of
glacier mass balance.
Climate change and
glacier retreat
•Glaciers are important
fresh water stores. They
are also provide a direct
measure of climate
change, growing and
shrinking in response to
cooling and warming. The
importance of avalanche
processes to the overall
health of the glacier is
something Dr Purdie
continues to research.
•Glaciers react quickly
to changes in climate by
adjusting the volume of
fresh water they store as
snow and ice. Globally,
glaciers are retreating and
research has shown that
New Zealand glaciers are
particularly sensitive to
temperature.
I.T. Careers
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