Every year, hundreds of thousands of tourists flock to Glacier Bay National Park in Southeast to see towering ice formations hanging over the water.
But that ice is melting. And fast.
A new report published this week in the journal Nature examines the trend here and in 18 other regions across the globe, including the Alps, Andes and Himalayas. Researchers concluded that the world’s glaciers have lost about 5% of their ice since 2000 – and that they’re melting faster than ever.
But Alaska takes the cake. The report says the state’s glaciers have shrunk by more than 8% over the same time period – the fastest of any region. All told, Alaska alone accounts for the largest chunk, or nearly a quarter, of global glacier loss.
“Alaska is ahead of the curve in terms of losing its glaciers,” said report co-author Tyler Sutterly, a scientist at the University of Washington’s Polar Science Center.
Alaska has a lot of glaciers to lose
It’s an important finding that Alaskans and visitors alike can see with their own eyes, Suttlery added.
“You go to the ice fields in Alaska, you can see visually the bathtub ring of where those glaciers were a few decades ago and where they are now,” he said. “All a glacier expert does is take that stuff that you can see by the eye, by going to these ice fields, and just putting it all together.”
Alaska is warming two to three times faster than the global average, according to the 2023 National Climate Assessment. And the state has a lot of glaciers to lose. According to the National Park Service, Alaska is home to nearly 20,000 glaciers, which cover an area nearly the size of West Virginia.
The vast majority of melting is happening in mountainous, coastal regions like Southeast, where glaciers are more concentrated. Glacier Bay National Park, for instance, has lost about 20% of its glacial area since 1985.
“A phenomenal metric for measuring climate change”
The new report in Nature is the result of a collaboration between dozens of international scientists who study glaciers and how they’re responding to climate change. Sutterly says the goal was to compare, contrast and combine more than 200 regional estimates of glacier weight to develop one of the most comprehensive understandings of glacier loss worldwide.
“Tens of thousands of glaciers taken together are a phenomenal metric for measuring climate change,” Sutterly said.
Scientists use a range of methods to get that measurement. Satellite imagery can be used to create three dimensional pictures of glaciers. Radars and lasers fired from space help measure changes in topography. And another method, called gravimetry, gauges earth’s gravity field to shed light on things like ocean circulation and the growth and loss of glaciers.
Scientists have conducted similar research on the massive ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. But this project instead looks at the smaller glaciers that are found in more places.
It’s a more challenging task, Sutterly said, because they’re smaller, more difficult to see from space, and located in less accessible places. Think: the ragged mountains that tower over Haines, Skagway and Gustavus. But they’re also crucial sources of information – and have major impacts on nearby ecosystems and communities.
“So these are individually smaller, but are huge parts of the landscape, and are very important for freshwater resources, tourism, river health,” Sutterly said.
