- Alaska’s Juneau Ice Field, home to more than 1,000 glaciers, is experiencing rapid melting and is currently shrinking 4.6 times faster than it was in the 1980s.
- The researchers tracked snow accumulation going back to 1948 and observed that melt rates have been increasing since about a decade ago.
- Between 2005 and 2019, 64 glaciers disappeared, including the large Antler Glacier, which has melted completely.
Melting is accelerating in Alaska’s Juneau Ice Field, home to more than 1,000 glaciers, with the snow-covered area now shrinking 4.6 times faster than it was in the 1980s, according to a new study.
The researchers closely tracked snow accumulation across the roughly 1,500-square-mile ice field going back to 1948 and even further back to the 18th century. According to the study published Tuesday in Nature Communications, snow accumulation gradually declined from its peak at the end of the Little Ice Age around 1850, but then the rate of melting accelerated about a decade ago.
“As the climate changes, we’re seeing shorter winters and longer summers,” said lead study author Bethan Davis, a glaciologist at Newcastle University in the U.K. “More ice is melting and the melt season is getting longer.”
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On average, about 50,000 gallons of ice will flow into the water every second from now on, because the ice is melting so quickly, said Mauri Pelto, a professor of environmental science at Nicholls College in Massachusetts and co-author of the study.
People look out at the view of Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska, on June 8, 2023. A new study suggests that melting is accelerating in the Juneau Icefield, Alaska, which is home to more than 1,000 glaciers. (AP Photo/Becky Bohler, File)
“In fact, between 2000 and 2020, Alaska’s glaciers have shrunk, losing more ice than any other region,” Davis said.
Between 1948 and 2005, only four glaciers in the Juneau Ice Field melted and disappeared. But between 2005 and 2019, 64 glaciers disappeared, the study said. Many of the glaciers were too small to be named, but one larger glacier, called Antler Glacier, “has completely disappeared,” Pelt said.
Alaska climatologist Brian Brettschneider, who was not involved in the study, said this acceleration was of most concern, warning of a “death spiral” for the thinning ice fields.
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An ice field is a collection of glaciers, whereas an ice sheet spans an entire continent; only two remain today, in Greenland and Antarctica. The most famous glacier in the Juneau Ice Field is the Mendenhall Glacier, which is popular with tourists. According to federal weather data, the Arctic is warming about four times faster than the rest of the Earth, with Alaska warming 2.6 degrees since 1980.
“When you go there, it’s like a blow to the head because the changes from year to year are so dramatic,” Pelt said.
Pelt first visited the Juneau Ice Fields in 1981 while trying to make the U.S. Ski Team, and has since given up competitive skiing to continue his research.
“In 1981, it wasn’t that hard to get up and down the glacier. You could just climb up and ski to the bottom or just ski off the edge,” Pelt said. But now, meltwater has formed lakes at the edge of the glacier and crevasses have opened up, making skiing more difficult, he said.
“The white snow and ice reflect the sun’s heat, while the dark rock absorbs it, heating the ground and causing even more snow to melt in a feedback effect that amplifies and accelerates global melting,” the study said.
The key is the snow line, below which snow can melt in the summer but above which it stays there all year round, and the snow line continues to rise, Pelt said.
The Juneau Ice Field’s relatively flat shape makes it “vulnerable to certain tipping points” where a rise in the snowline could make large areas susceptible to sudden melting, Davis said.
“The tipping point is when the snow line clears the entire ice field, ice sheet, glacier, whatever,” Pelt said, “and the Juneau Ice Field in 2019 and 2018 showed that we’re not that far away from that tipping point.”
Pelt said even if all the snow on the Juneau Ice Field melted — a long way off — it probably wouldn’t have a big impact on global sea level rise, but it’s a big tourist destination and cultural hotspot, Davis said.
“I’m concerned that the Arctic will be different in the future in ways that are unrecognizable to us today,” said Julian Straub, an ice scientist at the University of Manitoba who was not involved in the study. “This is just another sign that we’re seeing big changes to all the ice components that communities depend on – permafrost, sea ice, land ice.”
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Davis said the team was able to piece together a long-term picture of the ice fields’ melting by using satellite imagery, aircraft flights, photos stored in barrels at the warehouse and historical measurements on the ground, like a giant jigsaw puzzle with most of the pieces mostly white.
Five outside experts said the study made sense and was consistent with other observations. Michael Zemp, head of the World Glacier Monitoring Service, said the study showed “urgent and concrete action is needed to save at least some of the remaining ice.”
“It’s been 40 years since I first saw the glacier, so what will it look like 40 years from now? I think the Juneau Ice Field will have passed the tipping point by then.”
