Andrew Brown, Sara Tomko, Cecilia Cullen

“As long as I live, I’ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I’ll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I’ll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can”.

-John Muir 

Caption: Mendenhall Glacier, August 2016

 

On August 5, 2016 CAUSE students had the opportunity to hike to and explore Alaska’s famous Mendenhall glacier. Named after a superintendent of the United State Coast and Geodetic Survey, Mendenhall Glacier is one of the 38 glaciers flowing from the Juneau Icefield. Andrew and Sara share their memorable time exploring this glacier:

Walking into the wilderness of Alaska for the first time, we were greeted by old growth trees, a creek, a bridge and the stench of dead salmon. The boughs of the trees extended overhead and created a green roof above us. The trail was rocky and covered in pine needles and the smell of fresh air filled out lungs. We hiked for around an hour in the tunnel of green with Mendenhall Lake just to our right before the trail opened up to shear rocks and a steady wind buffeting us as we made our way up and down the rocky slopes.

Caption: CAUSE students climbing one of the many slopes to Mendenhall Glacier.

Scrambling up to a particularly high slope and scanning the scenery, we finally saw the glacier. The size of the glacier was awe-inspiring, but we quickly sobered when we saw a trail of signs leading towards the glacier marking the retreating ice. The space between 1970 and 1980 covered about the same length as 2008 to 2010. As we hiked closer to the ice, the temperature dropped and the size of the glacier grew.

Andrew

Cutting across the rocks toward the glacier is a lot easier said than done. The rocks are less stable, the slopes are steeper and the streams take a lot more choice foot placement to prevent soaked shoes. Andy set the pace with his long stride and Amanda and Andrew were not about to be left in his dust. They slipped, slid, and climbed their way until finally reaching the glacier. For some reason Andrew did not anticipate how slippery the glacier would be even though it is literally made out of ice.

When the rest of the group caught up, everyone trekked to the ice cave. The cave was a glowing clear blue. Standing within it and feeling the cold glacier drops on their heads felt like an experience from another world. It was awhile before everyone was ready to leave the glacier and begin the long trek back to the cars. Andrew surmises this as, “Solid first day in Alaska. We’re looking forward to getting out and doing research in this beautiful state.”

Sara

The Mendenhall glacier experience was everything Sara expected and more. The thin alder trees were an indicator of undeveloped soil horizons: characteristic of glacial till. The regional geology was also fascinating to Sara, from the coarse granite, filled with quartz feldspar to the plagioclase minerals.

Caption: Sara and Cecilia reading direction of glacial movement in the rock striations.

After climbing up steeply dipping shale beds and looking to the right, Sara saw the beautiful Mendenhall Lake. The picturesque view of the mountains reflecting on the blue water was breathtaking. And then as if being drawn in by the glacier, she turned to the left and her body was frozen in spot. The Mendenhall glacier was here. The glacier had retreated hundreds of feet from the pictures Sara saw fifteen years ago. Under the compacted snow and ice from years ago, was the translucent ancient blue color Sara had only seen in pictures.

Walking towards the massive ice, Sara’s mind was racing trying to come up with a solution to stop this retreating before the blue ice was gone. After all those years of the glacier turning the snow into firn (intermediate between snow and ice) and then into ice…all of the accumulation could be gone just like that.

Sara is particularly interested in the thousands of years of Earth history that are disappearing with Mendenhall. Ice has the ability of recording the history of the Earth’s surface temperature at that point of time the ice formed. This record could provide details on the climate from hundreds of thousands of years ago if interpreted. Already, so much recorded time has been lost. If this record is lost, how will we know the paleoclimate history of Alaska? Sara describes her moment of clarity, “I looked around and everyone had the same distraught expression on their face. I know that the CAUSE students will be part of the solution to stop this madness.”

Source:

United States Department of Agriculture. 2016. Accessed at: http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/tongass/about-forest/offices/?cid=stelprdb5401454.