The end of Taku

Ok, so it's not the end of Taku Glacier. Actually the glacier is still doing quite well. But it's the end of our 3-year NSF funded project. On one of the most beautiful days I've ever seen in Southeast Alaska, we flew to the glacier and dismantled all remaining equipment, such as GPS, seismic stations, cameras, and borehole data loggers.
Now it's back to the office and the work of data analysis, paper writing and conference presentations starts. We had a very productive meeting of the whole science team shortly after returning from the glacier.
Here are some pictures from this beautiful day:

The glacier just upstream of the terminus. Most of this ice would not have been visible around 1850, when this glacier was retreated.

Doug and I are dismantling a GPS station while the helicopter is waiting for us.

This GPS was just spared a detrimental crevasse fall.

The glacier advancing onto its own sediment delta. The sediments are protecting it from the ocean and thus from losing ice through calving.

On the way back we got a nice view of Lemon Creek Glacier. This glacier has been monitored since the 1950s, but it's not doing so well this year. There is essentially no snow left on the glacier this fall.