CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Clague, J.J.; and Evans, S.G.
Date : 1994
Title : Historic retreat of Grand Pacific and Melbern Glaciers, St. Elias Mountains, Canada, an analogue for decay of the Cordilleran ice sheet at the end of the Pleistocene?
Publication : Journal of Glaciology
Issue : 39(133):
Page(s) : 619-624.
Abstract
Grand Pacific and Melbern Glaciers, two of the largest valley glaciers in British Columbia, have decreased over 50% in volume in the last few hundred years (total ice loss = 250-300 km3). Melbern Glacier has thinned 300-600 m and retreated 15 km during this period; about 7km of this retreat occurred between the mid-1970s and 1987, accompanied by the formation of one of the largest, presently existing, ice-dammed lakes on Earth. Grand Pacific Glacier, which terminates in Tarr Inlet at the British Columbia-Alaska boundary, retreated 24km between 1879 and 1912. This rapid deglaciation has destabilized adjacent mountain slopes and produced spectacular ice-marginal land forms. The sediments and land forms produced by historic deglaciation in Melbern-Grand Pacific valley are comparable, both in style and scale, to those associated with the decay of the Cordilleran ice sheet at the end of the Pleistocene (c. 14-10 ka BP). Rates of historic and terminal Pleistocene deglaciation also may be comparable.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology