Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Marian Noë's avatar

Hi Alexander, it's going to be a warm sunny day here. The garden is waiting for me to do my thing . . .

Thank you for writing about one of the planets water reserves held in cold places. I have been to those places, what an experience!

I visited Moraine Lake, a beauty, and the Columbia Ice Fields.

The Columbia Ice Fields is the larges icefield in North America in the Canadian Rockies Mountains. I Walked a ways up the Athabasca Glacier, a finger of the ice fields, until it got to cold. Returned to the lower end and sat down at the foot of the glacier as I watched the meltwater gushing down. The meltwater looks like fat free milk. This glacier retreats at 5 meters(16.4 ft.) per year (current measurements?).

I Walked the terminal moraine at the snout (edge) of the glacier, which is covered with beautiful rocks and wild flowers. Warmed up in the Glacier View Lodge and returned to Lake Louise town. When you drive these local mountain roads you drive on the original glaciers beds, where glaciers back in time carved their way down also . . .

The Incredible Shrinking Glacier - August 10, 2018

https://epod.usra.edu/blog/2018/08/the-incredible-shrinking-glacier.html

Expand full comment
Evelyne Luethy's avatar

Those graphics from the Guardian leave quite an impression. Thank you for sharing that.

I was aware of a few of them in Switzerland - especially the Oberaletsch glacier. We won't be affected be the sea-level rise, but if permafrost is lost, the Alps will crumble. This has already started. I'm not sure about water scarcity in relation to loss of glaciers in Switzerland. Something else to add to my list of things I want to look into. Thank you for this very informative and also quite sobering newsletter.

Expand full comment
6 more comments...

No posts