The McCarthy International Summer School of Glaciology

 We resumed our biannual summer school this year (after the Covid hiatus in 2020). As usual, it was great to have students from such a variety of backgrounds gather for ten days.

We were blessed with an incredibly beautiful day on the way from Fairbanks to McCarthy

The Tanana River with the Alaska Range in the background

The Wrangell Mountains seen from the Richardson Hwy

The obligatory stop at the Kuskulana Brige

Most of the summer school is class room work, but one day we do go out on the Root Glacier under the guidance of Mike Loso, the National Park glaciologist.

The highlight of the glacier excursion is an ice cave from a recently drained marginal lake

And another (shorter) excursion to the western margin of the Kennicott Glacier

We found it! The legendary stump that was overridden by the glacier a long time ago ..

The mighty Mt. Blackburn

A view up Kennicott Glacier towards Donohue Mountain

Helicopter radar

Kennicott Glacier has been retreating for years now, leaving a lake behind. The
National Park Service funded us to do a comprehensive radar survey to get a better idea how big this lake will eventually become. Answer: big.

We have done radar from airplanes, but a  good way to cover the glacier more densely is to use a helicopter based system. It is quite a monstrosity!

Lift off!

We also got some measurements from the nearby Nizina Glacier, another glacier retreating into its own lake

The old mining town of Kennicott

The Chugach Mountains with the lower Kennicott Glacier in the foreground

 

Back to Sermeq Kujalleq (Jakobshavn Isbrae .... sort of)

 We got funded to return to Greenland with the goal of better characterizing what drives the seasonal variability of ice flow. Most of that work is remote sensing and modeling. But we are also hoping to get some detailed measurements of ice flow.

The trip did not start out well. We boarded a military C-130 aircraft to get to Greenland. But a fuel stop in Goose Bay (Canada) turned into an unexpected three day stop, because of a mechanical airplane issue.

  

But when we finally got to Ilulissat, we had one of these magical evenings by the ice fjord. 

 

Unfortunately that didn't last. The weather turned bad and never really improved much. We had to go home almost empty handed. One day it cleared up enough to fly to the calving front and put up some cameras

Looking down at the ice in the terminus area with its strange ribbon structure.

The calving front:

Root Glacier radar survey

The National Park Service funded us to do a radar survey on the Kennicott and Root Glaciers by McCarthy. Most of that survey happened later, using a helicopter radar. But we also wanted to do some ground based surveys to compare the airborne data to. 

So Brandon Tober, Mike Loso and I headed up the Root Glacier to drag the radar across the glacier. I hadn't been in McCarthy in winter in many years and it was just absolutely gorgeous to experience the place at a time when it is not so hectic.

View back on the Kennicott Glacier, on the way to the Root Glacier

Towing radar antennas with Doug the Dog

And here are some results that Brandon picked from the radargrams, showing that the glacier is over 400 m thick in this area.