Summary of the USGS benchmark glacier program to intensively monitor climate, glacier motion, glacier mass balance, glacier geometry, and stream runoff at three glacier basins, Gulkana and Wolverine in Alaska and South Cascade in Washington.
Accelerating loss of mass, weakening correlation with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, and increasing mass turnover likely are the result of changes to warmer and drier climate conditions that are affecting three well-studied glaciers.
Description and photos documenting offsets and 260 km rupture in the Denali glacier in central Alaska after the November 3, 2002 earthquake, the 9th largest earthquake in the United States in the last 200 years.
Links to background information on glaciers, glacier hazards, ice sheets and glaciations, glacial lakes, specific glaciers, terminology, bibliographies, and related useful links.
Downloadable data with software showing composite average ocean characteristics (sea-surface temperature and sea-ice concentration). Includes documentation, source code, data, and executable programs for Linux and Microsoft Windows.
The Arctic is warming faster than other regions of the world due to positive climate feedbacks associated with loss of snow and ice. The USGS has modeled the future responses of polar bear and Pacific walrus populations to this environmental change.
Brief information for students on glaciers and icecaps from Water Science for Schools with link to more glacial information by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).