The Muldrow Glacier surge has been getting a lot of attention with articles in the NY Times and more recently one in the Washington Post. And rightly so: after more than 60 years of a quiet life in the mountains the glacier has sprung into action. There were some tentative signs a few years ago, and I had a previous blog post from flying over it. But then this winter it went really crazy with ice moving faster than 20 m/d, which isn't exactly what we think of when we talk of a glacial pace.
Two of our graduate students recently spent a few weeks at the glacier doing detailed measurements with a ground-based terrestrial radar. I finally got a chance to look at it myself; here are some photos. It is a pretty spectacular sight.
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Very pronounced shear margins with chaotic crevassing
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This was a smooth glacier surface just a few months ago
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Some (but not all) tributaries are very engaged in the surge
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A view into the upper glacier (Traleika junction). Note the ice that is stranded many tens of meters above the glacier surface. This is the surge reservoir area, the part of the glacier that has been building up over decades and is now being depleted in just a few months.
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Near the glacier terminus: Ice is building up to impressive heights
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The surge front advancing into the glacier forelands
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If you look carefully you can spot David and Emily's camp (yellow Arctic Oven) and the terrestrial radar interferometer
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