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Friday's Findings - November 5 2021

By Ecosystems October 27, 2021
What is a glacier? Defining ice dynamic thresholds for regional assessments of glacier mass change

Date: November 5, 2021 from 2-2:30 p.m. eastern time

Speaker: Caitlyn Florentine, Research Physical Scientist, USGS Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center

Click here to join the meeting

Call In: 202-640-1187

Conference ID: 548 635 262#

Measurement stakes are carried across Sperry Glacier in Glacier National Park, Montana, during spring mass balance field work.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.
Measurement stakes are carried across Sperry Glacier in Glacier National Park, Montana, during spring mass balance field work in 2019. (Public domain.)

Summary: Glacier retreat caused by climate change captivates public visitors to National Parks and is consequential for alpine ecosystems, water resources, and global sea level rise. There are over two hundred thousand glaciers on Earth outside of the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets, yet the smallest of these icy features are difficult to distinguish from perennially frozen, stagnant patches of ice. This begs the question, What is a glacier? This talk will present research into the syntax and dynamic thresholds used to identify and categorize small mountain glaciers.

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