Staking the future of B.C. glaciers
Scientists to measure melting rate to help understand how quickly ice is retreating
Glaciologists know that B.C.'S coastal glaciers are melting at a faster rate than previously thought because of climate change, but more data is needed to understand when they will be gone.
The rapid retreat of the glaciers means more geo-hazards like increased flooding from melting ice and landslides. When they are gone in the future there will be more issues with creeks and rivers running low or drying up during late summer.
That's why Mark Ednie, a physical scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada, is about to embark on just over a month-long expedition at the end of this month to study some of B.C. and Alberta's shrinking glaciers.
Ednie, with a team of two other scientists, will trek through the Northwest Territories' Nahanni National Park Reserve of Canada to monitor the Bologna Glacier. They will also visit data sites at Peyto Glacier in Banff National Park and Helm Glacier in Garibaldi Provincial Park.
First stop on the trip will be Helm Glacier in the Squamish-lillooet region, and a popular destination for backcountry enthusiasts.
Ednie will stay in Pemberton and then be dropped by helicopter at the top of the glacier, where he and his team will spend a day installing the measurement equipment.
Using six-metre aluminum stakes drilled into the glacier, the scientists will measure for snow density and depth. Then they will return at the end of summer to record how much has melted at the Helm Glacier.
“What we're trying to understand is exactly how the glacier is changing,” said Ednie. “And then we come back and measure how high the stakes are sticking out ... and so that will give us an idea of how the glaciers are thinning from the top down.”
Last year, after B.C.'S deadly heat dome, scientists measured a threeto five-metre loss at Helm, while at the Peyto Glacier in Banff they measured a loss of around 200 metres horizontally.
They've also discovered a distinct lack of firn on his glaciers now. Firn is the multi-year-old snow that remains on the glacier during the melt.
“At Helm Glacier, it's pretty much what we call almost a dead glacier now. There's literally no growth at all,” said Ednie.
“There's no more mass. It's only melting.”
A 2015 UBC study determined 70 per cent of all glaciers in Canada would be gone by the end of the century.
However, Ednie said that estimate is old now and from what they have seen in the last few years, especially at Helm, that timeline may be an underestimate.
At Helm, for example, the glacier looks like it's being cut in half by exposed bedrock, which means the middle of the glacier is absorbing more sunlight, melting the ice around it, he said.
“So once you start seeing these bits of rock coming through the glacier bedrock, it really means that that glacier is thin and that the melt will accelerate.”
Policy-makers need to understand the implications of these disappearing glaciers and what it will mean for B.C. when they are gone, said Ednie.
“As these glacier start to melt and disappear, we're going to be in trouble because glaciers act as a bank account for water,” he said. “But once all that ice is gone these creeks will start to run dry and that will impact drinking water and aquatic life and other animal habitat.”
The rapid melt of coastal glaciers could also lead to severe geo hazards in populated areas such as the Sea to Sky region, causing landslides and infrastructure damage, said Ednie.
“As glaciers recede, they move away from the rock, and that rock could fall.”
This happened two years ago in a rural part of central B.C. at Elliot Creek. The landslide at the West Grenville Glacier displaced enough water to cause a tsunami more than 100 metres high.
It will also devastate B.C.'S mountain tourism industry as the province's glaciers draw thousands of backcountry enthusiasts from around the world every year.
“It's very sad because they are such a natural beauty. It's difficult to see them go. But they're there now and they're absolutely gorgeous.”
Ednie's team is one of two from Natural Resources Canada heading to study at-risk glaciers. The other team will travel 3,500 kilometres across the High Arctic in April to monitor weather station data at stations on the Agassiz, Meighen, Devon and Grise Fiord ice caps in Nunavut and the Melville Ice Cap in the Northwest Territories.