CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Anslow, F.S.; Jarosch, A.H.; Clarke, G.K.; and Radic, V.
Date : 2010.
Title : The past and future deglaciation of western Canada: years 1900 to 2100.
Publication : American Geophysical Union 2010 Fall Meeting, December 13-17, 2010. Moscone Convention Centre, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
Issue :
Page(s) : C34A-05.
Abstract
Mountain glaciers and ice caps have been diminishing in extent and volume over the last century. In recent decades, the rate has increased causing them to be one of the greatest contributors to present-day rates of sea level rise. Existing projections suggest that this large contribution will continue through the coming century. However, all of these projections have been based on lumped models of glacier surface mass balance, volume, and dynamics. We present results from large spatial scale (ice covered portions of Yukon, Alberta, and British Columbia provinces) 200 meter resolution, discreet simulations of surface mass balance and ice dynamics for all of western Canada for the period from 1900 through 2100. Model boundary conditions are provided by an inversion algorithm for determining the glacier bed topographies; 18 combinations of six general circulation model simulations forced by three emission scenarios from the most recent IPCC report; and a surface mass balance model which includes parameterizations for wind redistribution and avalanching of snow. Our results show that, for some emission scenarios, future rates of alpine glacier volume change are unprecedented in the historical perspective, that the majority of smaller glaciers ( < 10 km2) will disappear in the next century, and that greater than half of the estimated 1900 km3 of ice will have melted to the sea contributing more than 2.3 mm to sea level rise.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology