CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Barrand, N.E; Bell, T.J.; and Sharp, M.J,
Date : 2010.
Title : Recent glacier change in the Torngat Mountains, northern Labrador, Canada.
Publication : WDCAG 2010: A Spatial Odyssey. 52nd Annual Meeting of the Western Division of the Canadian Association of Geographers. March 25-27, 2010. University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta.
Issue :
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Abstract
We present combined field and remote-sensing observations of glacier change over the past half century in the Torngat Mountains of northern Labrador, Canada. Glaciers in the Torngats represent the southernmost extent of perennial land ice in the eastern Canadian Arctic and are the only continental north American glaciers east of the Rockies. These small cirque glaciers, remnant of a more extensive past ice cover, play an important role in regulation of local water supply to downstream ecosystems. We derived regional glacier inventories from the early 1960s and late 2000s using a range of airborne and satellite remotely-sensed datasets. Glacier extents from the early 1960s measured from Canadian Land Survey aerial photographs were differenced from late 2000s extents measured using a combination of Landsat 7 and SPOTS satellite imagery. We present these regional glacier changes in combination with detailed field measurements of frontal retreat and ice surface elevation change at three glaciers. Abraham and Hidden glaciers, which experienced increasingly negative net mass balances during the early 1980s, thinned on average by 5`375 Aħ 0.09 m and 8`11.35 Aħ 0.03 m respectively, between summers 2008-2009. Minaret glacier, which shifted from slightly positive net balance in 1981-82 to negative balance in 1983, thinned on average by a 2.24 Aħ 0.02 m between 2008-2009. Our measurements (which are the first field glaciological measurements in the remote Torngat mountains since the early 1980s) indicate a shift towards increasing rates of mass wastage in recent years.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology