A kayak trip in Glacier Bay in 2006 inspired an engineer to research the impact of glacial run off in the Gulf of Alaska. David Hill is an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at Oregon State University. For the study, he used decades of state and USGS stream flow data, combined with calculations on land characteristics and watershed size to create an analysis for the entire area.
He found glacier melt makes up about 10% of the overall precipitation added to the Gulf. The annual amount is measured in multiple feet of water. Hill says he worked to model how quickly rain and snow melt started to flow.
- Massive amounts of fresh water, glacial melt pouring into Gulf of Alaska
- Massive Glacier Melt Pouring into Gulf of Alaska
Lori Townsend is the chief editor, senior vice president of journalism and senior host for Alaska Public Media. You can send her news tips and program ideas for Talk of Alaska and Alaska Insight at ltownsend@alaskapublic.org or call 907-550-8452. Read more about Lori here.
