Mountain glaciers are dynamic reservoirs of frozen water closely coupled to ecosystems and climate. Glacier change in North America has major socioeconomic impacts, including global sea level change, tourism disruption, natural hazard risk, fishery effects, and water resource alteration. Understanding and quantifying precise connections between glaciers and climate is critical to decision makers, land managers, and the public, who are affected by these consequences of glacier change. The USGS Glaciers and Climate Project is aimed at solving complex scientific problems in snow and ice across North America to promote enhanced monitoring, analysis, and prediction of mountain glacier change. Utilizing expertise across USGS, this project combines legacy glacier monitoring with contemporary methods to reveal glacier-climate insight and deliver relevant, actionable science.
USGS Benchmark Glacier Project
The flagship research effort of the Glaciers and Climate Project is a multi-glacier, decades-long study of glacier-climate response. Since the 1950s, glacier mass-balance measurements have been systematically collected at five benchmark glaciers, beginning with South Cascade (WA) and later including Gulkana, Wolverine and Lemon Creek Glaciers (AK). Sperry Glacier (MT), monitored since 2005, was added to complete the geographically diverse network in 2013.
Results from this monitoring form the longest continuous record of North American glacier mass balance, which capture seasonal and year-to-year variability. These intensively studied glaciers provide insight into the connection between climate and glaciers at multiple scales.
Historic glacier monitoring has involved various mission areas across USGS, but research was unified into one cohesive program in 2019 (O'Neel and others, 2019). Common field methodologies coupled with long-term, consistently analyzed records, are the hallmark of the Benchmark Glacier Project. Such consistency among sites allows glacier records from different climate zones of North America to be directly compared in order to better understand the impacts of mountain glacier change response of glaciers. Four of the glaciers are considered ‘reference’ glaciers in the World Glacier Monitoring Service’s internationally coordinated glacier monitoring network.
The USGS Benchmark Glacier Project also incorporates data collected from spaceborne and airborne platforms, enabling scientists to document three-dimensional glacier change at regional scales. This application of remotely sensed data broadens the project’s scope and relevance to facilitate glacier change projections, which guide sea level and water resource management strategies.
Benchmark Glaciers
Glacier Mass Balance
Research on Other Glaciers

Additional Resources
Additional Research Glaciers
Wolverine Glacier
Sperry Glacier
South Cascade Glacier
Gulkana Glacier
Lemon Creek Glacier
Mass Balance Summary
Mass Balance Methods - Measuring Glacier Change
Analyzing North American Glacier Change
Biogeochemistry of glaciers
Time Series of Glacier Retreat
Status of Glaciers in Glacier National Park
Firn Density and Stratigraphy Observations from USGS Benchmark Glaciers
Scanned field notebooks from a USGS Benchmark Glacier: South Cascade Glacier, Washington,1957 - 2022
Geodetic Data for USGS Benchmark Glaciers: Orthophotos, Digital Elevation Models, Glacier Boundaries and Surveyed Positions
Glacier-Wide Mass Balance and Compiled Data Inputs
Glacier-Wide Mass Balance and Compiled Data Inputs: Juneau Icefield Glaciers
Raw Ground Penetrating Radar Data on North American Glaciers
Geodetic Data for Juneau Icefield Glaciers: Orthophotos, Digital Elevation Models, and Glacier Boundaries
Weather Station Data on the Juneau Icefield
Historical Structure from Motion (HSfM): Automated processing of historical aerial photographs for long-term topographic change analysis
Uncertainty of ICESat-2 ATL06- and ATL08-derived snow depths for glacierized and vegetated mountain regions
U.S. Geological Survey Benchmark Glacier Project
The U.S. Geological Survey Benchmark Glacier Project combines decades of direct glaciological data with remote sensing data to advance the quantitative understanding of glacier-climate interactions. The global loss of glaciers, and consequent implications for water resources, sea level rise, and ecosystem function underscores the importance of U.S. Geological Survey glaciology research to facilit
Beyond glacier-wide mass balances: Parsing seasonal elevation change into spatially resolved patterns of accumulation and ablation at Wolverine Glacier, Alaska
Topographic controls on ice flow and recession for Juneau Icefield (Alaska/British Columbia)
The imminent calving retreat of Taku Glacier
f. Glaciers and ice caps outside Greenland
Specialized meltwater biodiversity persists despite widespread deglaciation
Parsing complex terrain controls on mountain glacier response to climate forcing
Explaining mass balance and retreat dichotomies at Taku and Lemon Creek Glaciers, Alaska
Glacier retreat in Glacier National Park, Montana
Reanalysis of the U.S. Geological Survey Benchmark Glaciers: Long-term insight into climate forcing of glacier mass balance
Glacier Dashboard
The U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center collaborated with the Alaska Science Center and Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center to compile available datasets on glacier outlines, ice thickness, ice velocity, and glacier surface elevation change to assess the vulnerability of Alaskan glaciers. This data viewer reflects that effort.
The Glacier - Climate Connection
The Glacier-Climate Connection geonarrative tells the story of the U.S. Geological Survey Benchmark Glacier Project, one of the longest running studies of glaciers on Earth.
- Overview
Mountain glaciers are dynamic reservoirs of frozen water closely coupled to ecosystems and climate. Glacier change in North America has major socioeconomic impacts, including global sea level change, tourism disruption, natural hazard risk, fishery effects, and water resource alteration. Understanding and quantifying precise connections between glaciers and climate is critical to decision makers, land managers, and the public, who are affected by these consequences of glacier change. The USGS Glaciers and Climate Project is aimed at solving complex scientific problems in snow and ice across North America to promote enhanced monitoring, analysis, and prediction of mountain glacier change. Utilizing expertise across USGS, this project combines legacy glacier monitoring with contemporary methods to reveal glacier-climate insight and deliver relevant, actionable science.
USGS Benchmark Glacier Project
A researcher locates an ablation stake near a crevasse on Wolverine Glacier. These collapsible poles are used to measure snow and ice melt on the glacier surface. The flagship research effort of the Glaciers and Climate Project is a multi-glacier, decades-long study of glacier-climate response. Since the 1950s, glacier mass-balance measurements have been systematically collected at five benchmark glaciers, beginning with South Cascade (WA) and later including Gulkana, Wolverine and Lemon Creek Glaciers (AK). Sperry Glacier (MT), monitored since 2005, was added to complete the geographically diverse network in 2013.
Results from this monitoring form the longest continuous record of North American glacier mass balance, which capture seasonal and year-to-year variability. These intensively studied glaciers provide insight into the connection between climate and glaciers at multiple scales.
Historic glacier monitoring has involved various mission areas across USGS, but research was unified into one cohesive program in 2019 (O'Neel and others, 2019). Common field methodologies coupled with long-term, consistently analyzed records, are the hallmark of the Benchmark Glacier Project. Such consistency among sites allows glacier records from different climate zones of North America to be directly compared in order to better understand the impacts of mountain glacier change response of glaciers. Four of the glaciers are considered ‘reference’ glaciers in the World Glacier Monitoring Service’s internationally coordinated glacier monitoring network.
The USGS Benchmark Glacier Project also incorporates data collected from spaceborne and airborne platforms, enabling scientists to document three-dimensional glacier change at regional scales. This application of remotely sensed data broadens the project’s scope and relevance to facilitate glacier change projections, which guide sea level and water resource management strategies.
Location of the five USGS Benchmark Glaciers (colored circles) among the glacierized regions of North America (blue). Benchmark Glaciers
Glacier Mass Balance
Research on Other Glaciers
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. Visit Media to see details.USGS scientist, Chris McNeil, measures and weighs an ice core extracted from Wolverine Glacier to determine the density of the firn layer. Additional Resources
- Science
Filter Total Items: 13
Additional Research Glaciers
Black Rapids, Columbia and Hubbard glaciers are also researched by the USGS.Wolverine Glacier
Wolverine Glacier is located in the high-latitude maritime climate regime of Alaska’s Kenai Mountains. Glacier observations began at this site in 1966.Sperry Glacier
Sperry Glacier is located along the Continental Divide within Glacier National Park, Montana. It represents the midlatitude continental or transitional climate. Glacier observations began at this site in 2005.South Cascade Glacier
South Cascade Glacier is located in the midlatitude maritime climate of the North Cascade Mountains of Washington State. Glacier observations began at this site in 1958.Gulkana Glacier
Gulkana Glacier is located in the high-latitude continental climate regime of Alaska’s Delta Mountains. Glacier observations began at this site in 1966.Lemon Creek Glacier
Lemon Creek Glacier is located in the high-latitude maritime region of Alaska, at the southernmost tip of the Juneau Icefield. Glacier observations began at this site in 1953.Mass Balance Summary
The USGS Benchmark Glacier Project measures changes in mass balance at five benchmark glaciers: Gulkana (AK), Wolverine (AK), Lemon Creek (AK), South Cascade (WA), and Sperry (MT).Mass Balance Methods - Measuring Glacier Change
Nearly all Earth's alpine glaciers are losing ice, usually expressed as loss of mass. Rates of mass loss for North American glaciers are among the highest on Earth (Gardner, 2013) and shrinking glaciers are often the most visible indicators of mountain ecosystems responding to climate change.Analyzing North American Glacier Change
Mountain glacier mass change affects water resources, regional ecosystems and global sea level. Understanding the physical processes that control glacier mass change requires field measurements of winter snow accumulation and summer melt.Biogeochemistry of glaciers
Significant change to the Arctic and sub-arctic water cycle is underway, impacting hydrologic and biogeochemical fluxes. In southcentral Alaska, glacier mass loss, changes to precipitation (including the rain/snow fraction), thawing ground ice, and vegetation encroachment will change both magnitude and timing of water and solute fluxes downstream. Although altered fluxes of limiting nutrients are...Time Series of Glacier Retreat
The retreat of glaciers (see PDF at end of page) in Glacier National Park, Montana, has received widespread attention by the media, the public, and scientists because it is a clear and poignant indicator of change in the northern Rocky Mountains of the USA. In 2017, the USGS and Portland State University released a dataset which describes the areas of the 37 named glaciers in Glacier National Park...Status of Glaciers in Glacier National Park
Glaciers on the Glacier National Park (GNP) landscape have ecological value as a source of cold meltwater in the otherwise dry late summer months, and aesthetic value as the park’s namesake features. USGS scientists have studied these glaciers since the late 1800s, building a body of research that documents widespread glacier change over the past century. Ongoing USGS research pairs long-term data... - Data
Firn Density and Stratigraphy Observations from USGS Benchmark Glaciers
This dataset contains observations of snow and firn density and stratigraphy from Site EC on Wolverine Glacier. Site EC is located in the accumulation zone on the northwest flank of the upper glacier at 1350m. Cores were recovered using a FELICS corer to approximately 25m depth at the end of the accumulation season and the end of ablation season starting in 2016. Additional cores were drilled throScanned field notebooks from a USGS Benchmark Glacier: South Cascade Glacier, Washington,1957 - 2022
This data release is a collection of data and field notes documenting snow and ice changes on South Cascade Glacier, Washington, USA. The field records relate to glaciological research and reflect evolving interpretations of glacier mass balance, climatology, hydrology, and other glacier-related research conducted at the site between 1957 to 2022 in association with the USGS Benchmark Glacier ProjGeodetic Data for USGS Benchmark Glaciers: Orthophotos, Digital Elevation Models, Glacier Boundaries and Surveyed Positions
Since the late 1950s, the USGS has maintained a long-term glacier mass-balance program at three North American glaciers. Measurements began on South Cascade Glacier, WA in 1958, expanding to Gulkana and Wolverine glaciers, AK in 1966, and later Sperry Glacier, MT in 2005. Additional measurements have been made on Lemon Creek Glacier, AK to compliment data collected by the Juneau Icefield ResearchGlacier-Wide Mass Balance and Compiled Data Inputs
Since the late 1950s, the USGS has maintained a long-term glacier mass-balance program at three North American glaciers. Measurements began on South Cascade Glacier, WA in 1958, expanding to Gulkana and Wolverine glaciers, AK in 1966, and later Sperry Glacier, MT in 2005. The Juneau Icefield Research Program has measured surface mass balance on Lemon Creek and Taku Glacier since the mid-1940s, witGlacier-Wide Mass Balance and Compiled Data Inputs: Juneau Icefield Glaciers
Since the 1940s, the Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP) has been measuring surface mass balance on the Juneau Icefield. This is the longest ongoing program of its kind in North America. The program nominally occurs between late June and late August, traversing between Juneau, Alaska and Atlin, British Columbia. JIRP has examined the surface mass balance of the Juneau Icefield since 1946, withRaw Ground Penetrating Radar Data on North American Glaciers
U.S. Geological Survey researchers conducted time-series ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys with a Sensors and Software 500-MHz Pulse Ekko Pro system. This data release contains ground-based (ski and snowmobile) as well as airborne common-offset profiles. All profiles are linked to coincident GPS observations. Additionally, common-midpoint data was collected at specific glacier locations. CoinGeodetic Data for Juneau Icefield Glaciers: Orthophotos, Digital Elevation Models, and Glacier Boundaries
Since the 1940s, the Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP) has been measuring surface mass balance on the Juneau Icefield. This is the longest ongoing program of its kind in North America. The program nominally occurs between late June and late August, traversing between Juneau, Alaska and Atlin, British Columbia. JIRP has examined the surface mass balance of the Juneau Icefield since 1946, withWeather Station Data on the Juneau Icefield
Since the 1940s, the Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP) has been measuring surface mass balance on the Juneau Icefield. This is the longest ongoing program of its kind in North America. The program nominally occurs between late June and late August, traversing between Juneau, Alaska and Atlin, British Columbia. JIRP has examined the surface mass balance of the Juneau Icefield since 1946, with - Publications
Filter Total Items: 43
Historical Structure from Motion (HSfM): Automated processing of historical aerial photographs for long-term topographic change analysis
Precisely measuring the Earth’s changing surface on decadal to centennial time scales is critical for many science and engineering applications, yet long-term records of quantitative landscape change are often temporally and geographically sparse. Archives of scanned historical aerial photographs provide an opportunity to augment these records with accurate elevation measurements that capture theAuthorsFriedrich Knuth, David Shean, Shashank Bhushan, Eli Schwat, Oleg Alexandrov, Christopher J. McNeil, Amaury Dehecq, Caitlyn Florentine, Shad O'NeelUncertainty of ICESat-2 ATL06- and ATL08-derived snow depths for glacierized and vegetated mountain regions
Seasonal snow melt dominates the hydrologic budget across a large portion of the globe. Snow accumulation and melt vary over a broad range of spatial scales, preventing accurate extrapolation of sparse in situ observations to watershed scales. The lidar onboard the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation, Satellite (ICESat-2) was designed for precise mapping of ice sheets and sea ice, and here we assess thAuthorsEllyn Enderlin, Colten Elkin, Madeline Gendreau, H. P. Marshall, Shad O'Neel, Christopher J. McNeil, Caitlyn Florentine, Louis C. SassU.S. Geological Survey Benchmark Glacier Project
The U.S. Geological Survey Benchmark Glacier Project combines decades of direct glaciological data with remote sensing data to advance the quantitative understanding of glacier-climate interactions. The global loss of glaciers, and consequent implications for water resources, sea level rise, and ecosystem function underscores the importance of U.S. Geological Survey glaciology research to facilit
AuthorsCaitlyn Florentine, Lisa L. MckeonBeyond glacier-wide mass balances: Parsing seasonal elevation change into spatially resolved patterns of accumulation and ablation at Wolverine Glacier, Alaska
We present spatially distributed seasonal and annual surface mass balances of Wolverine Glacier, Alaska, from 2016 to 2020. Our approach accounts for the effects of ice emergence and firn compaction on surface elevation changes to resolve the spatial patterns in mass balance at 10 m scale. We present and compare three methods for estimating emergence velocities. Firn compaction was constrained byAuthorsLucas Zeller, Daniel J McGrath, Louis C. Sass, Shad O'Neel, Christopher J. McNeil, Emily BakerTopographic controls on ice flow and recession for Juneau Icefield (Alaska/British Columbia)
Globally, mountain glaciers and ice caps are losing dramatic volumes of ice. The resultant sea-level rise is dominated by contributions from Alaska. Plateau icefields may be especially sensitive to climate change due to the non-linear controls their topography imparts on their response to climate change. However, Alaskan plateau icefields have been subject to little structural glaciological or regAuthorsBethan Davies, Jacob Bendle, Jonathan Carrivick, Robert McNabb, Christopher J. McNeil, Mauri Pelto, Seth Campbell, Tom Holt, Jeremy Ely, Bradley MarkleThe imminent calving retreat of Taku Glacier
Along the rugged Southeast Alaska coast, 30 kilometers northeast of the state capital Juneau, a tidewater glacier has largely defied global trends by steadily advancing for most of the past century while most glaciers on Earth retreated. This 55-kilometer-long and nearly 1,500-meter-thick tidewater glacier, named Taku Glacier, or T'aaḵú Ḵwáan Sít'i in the language of the Indigenous Tlingit people,AuthorsChristopher J. McNeil, Jason Amundson, Shad O'Neel, Roman Motyka, Louis C. Sass, Martin Truffer, Jenna Ziemann, Seth Campbellf. Glaciers and ice caps outside Greenland
No abstract available.AuthorsGabe Wolken, M. Sharp, L. M. Andreassen, Emily Baker, B. Wouters, D. Burgess, B. Luks, J. Kohler, Shad O'NeelSpecialized meltwater biodiversity persists despite widespread deglaciation
Glaciers are important drivers of environmental heterogeneity and biological diversity across mountain landscapes. Worldwide, glaciers are receding rapidly due to climate change, with important consequences for biodiversity in mountain ecosystems. However, the effects of glacier loss on biodiversity have never been quantified across a mountainous region, primarily due to a lack of adequate data atAuthorsClint C. Muhlfeld, Timothy Joseph Cline, J. Joseph Giersch, Erich Peitzsch, Caitlyn Florentine, Dean Jacobsen, Scott HotalingParsing complex terrain controls on mountain glacier response to climate forcing
Glaciers are a key indicator of changing climate in the high mountain landscape. Glacier variations across a mountain range are ultimately driven by regional climate forcing. However, changes also reflect local, topographically driven processes such as snow avalanching, snow wind-drifting, and radiation shading as well as the initial glacier conditions such as hypsometry and ice thickness. Here weAuthorsCaitlyn Elizabeth Florentine, Joel T. Harper, Daniel B. FagreExplaining mass balance and retreat dichotomies at Taku and Lemon Creek Glaciers, Alaska
We reanalyzed mass balance records at Taku and Lemon Creek Glaciers to better understand the relative roles of hypsometry, local climate and dynamics as mass balance drivers. Over the 1946–2018 period, the cumulative mass balances diverged. Tidewater Taku Glacier advanced and gained mass at an average rate of +0.25±0.28 m w.e. a–1, contrasting with retreat and mass loss of –0.60±0.15 m w.e. a-1 atAuthorsChristopher J. McNeil, Shad O'Neel, Michael Loso, Mauri Pelto, Louis C. Sass, Emily Baker, Seth CampbellGlacier retreat in Glacier National Park, Montana
Currently, the volume of land ice on Earth is decreasing, driving consequential changes to global sea level and local stream habitat. Glacier retreat in Glacier National Park, Montana, U.S.A., is one example of land ice loss and glacier change. The U.S. Geological Survey Benchmark Glacier Project conducts glaciological research and collects field measurements across select North American glaciers,AuthorsCaitlyn FlorentineReanalysis of the U.S. Geological Survey Benchmark Glaciers: Long-term insight into climate forcing of glacier mass balance
Mountain glaciers integrate climate processes to provide an unmatched signal of regional climate forcing. However, extracting the climate signal via intercomparison of regional glacier mass balance records can be problematic when methods for extrapolating and calibrating direct glaciological measurements are mixed or inconsistent. To address this problem, we reanalyzed and compared long-term massAuthorsShad O'Neel, Christopher J. McNeil, Louis C. Sass, Caitlyn Florentine, Emily Baker, Erich Peitzsch, Daniel J McGrath, Andrew G. Fountain, Daniel B. Fagre - Web Tools
Glacier Dashboard
The U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center collaborated with the Alaska Science Center and Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center to compile available datasets on glacier outlines, ice thickness, ice velocity, and glacier surface elevation change to assess the vulnerability of Alaskan glaciers. This data viewer reflects that effort.
The Glacier - Climate Connection
The Glacier-Climate Connection geonarrative tells the story of the U.S. Geological Survey Benchmark Glacier Project, one of the longest running studies of glaciers on Earth.
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