The Juneau Icefield is home to the Mendenhall and more than a thousand other glaciers. Ice there has melted especially fast over the last decade — twice as quickly as it did before 2010.
The Mendenhall Glacier is a beautiful sight. To Bethan Davies , a glaciologist at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, it’s alsoIt’s no secret that Alaska’s glaciers are shrinking as the burning of fossil fuels warms the planet.
“That means that we would continue to lose ice from Juneau Icefield, even if climate change stops. Even if temperatures stop rising,” she said. “At the moment, we can retain our icefields, but if we cross that tipping point it’s too late.” They found that glacier volume decreased at a pretty steady pace between 1770 and 1979. Through the tail of the 20th century and the early 2000s, things started to melt a little bit faster. Then, between 2010 and 2020, ice loss accelerated sharply.
“That means you’re suddenly losing snow, losing nourishment over a really big area of the icefield,” Davies said. “That’s not a healthy thing for a glacier.”
Juneau Alaska Climate Change Antarctic Ice Bethan Davies Glacial Ice Greenland Ice Sheet Juneau Icefield Nature Communications University Of Newcastle
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