Bering Glacier Research Articles

Analysis of the 1993-95 Bering Glacier (Alaska) surge using differential SAR interferometry

AbstractDifferential spaceborne radar interferometry observations of West Bagley Icefield are used to measure surface velocity and topography. Bagley Icefield is the accumulation area fur Bering Glacier which surged in two phases from spring 1993 through summer 1905. The observations presented are based on data collected during the winter of 1992, prior to the surge, and during winter 1994 while the surge was in full progress. Both observation intervals correspond to 3 day repeat orbit phases of the ERS-I C-band SAR. This paper gives an overview of the algorithms used to derive surface-velocity vector fields and topography for valley glaciers from SAR images. The resulting high-resolution velocity data clearly show West Bagley Icefield accelerating from its quiescent pre-surge velocity by a factor of 2.7 in response to the Bering Glacier surge. Persistence of lnterfero-metric phase coherence and the relatively moderate degree of acceleration on the western arm of Bagley Icefield suggest that the velocity increase may have been caused by increased longitudinal stress gradients resulting from coupling to the surging main trunk of Bering Glacier.

Analysis of the 1993-95 Bering Glacier (Alaska) surge using differential SAR interferometry

AbstractDifferential spaceborne radar interferometry observations of West Bagley Icefield are used to measure surface velocity and topography. Bagley Icefield is the accumulation area fur Bering Glacier which surged in two phases from spring 1993 through summer 1905. The observations presented are based on data collected during the winter of 1992, prior to the surge, and during winter 1994 while the surge was in full progress. Both observation intervals correspond to 3 day repeat orbit phases of the ERS-I C-band SAR. This paper gives an overview of the algorithms used to derive surface-velocity vector fields and topography for valley glaciers from SAR images. The resulting high-resolution velocity data clearly show West Bagley Icefield accelerating from its quiescent pre-surge velocity by a factor of 2.7 in response to the Bering Glacier surge. Persistence of lnterfero-metric phase coherence and the relatively moderate degree of acceleration on the western arm of Bagley Icefield suggest that the velocity increase may have been caused by increased longitudinal stress gradients resulting from coupling to the surging main trunk of Bering Glacier.

Surge of Bering Glacier and Bagley Ice Field, Alaska: an update to August 1995 and an interpretation of brittle-deformation patterns

AbstractIn the summers of 1993, 1994 and 1995, video and Global Positioning System location data and 35 mm photographs were collected in a series of systematic survey flights undertaken over the Bering Glacier and Bagley Ice Field system (Alaska) in an effort to characterize surge-crevasse patterns and surge propagation. During survey flights in late August 1995, we observed that the 1993–94. Bering Glacier surge was continuing and still expanding affecting new areas farther up in Bagley Ice Field. New crevasse fields, similar in pattern to the first surge crevasses we had observed in June 1993 below Khitrov Hills and in other isolated areas of central Bering Glacier and in July 1994 near the head of Bering Glacier (near the junction of Bering Glacier and Bagley Ice Field, in both upper Bering Glacier and Bagley Ice Field), were opening in eastern Bagley Ice Field and in the “Stellet” side of Bagley Ice Field. The type of crevasses seen in the new fields suggested that the surge was propagating into these areas. By analysis and interpretation of the brittle-deformation patterns apparent in the crevasse patterns, some aspects of the past kinematic framework of the surge can be deduced. This approach may lead to a more general classification of ice-surface structures and to their linkage to ongoing processes.

Surge of Bering Glacier and Bagley Ice Field, Alaska: an update to August 1995 and an interpretation of brittle-deformation patterns

AbstractIn the summers of 1993, 1994 and 1995, video and Global Positioning System location data and 35 mm photographs were collected in a series of systematic survey flights undertaken over the Bering Glacier and Bagley Ice Field system (Alaska) in an effort to characterize surge-crevasse patterns and surge propagation. During survey flights in late August 1995, we observed that the 1993–94. Bering Glacier surge was continuing and still expanding affecting new areas farther up in Bagley Ice Field. New crevasse fields, similar in pattern to the first surge crevasses we had observed in June 1993 below Khitrov Hills and in other isolated areas of central Bering Glacier and in July 1994 near the head of Bering Glacier (near the junction of Bering Glacier and Bagley Ice Field, in both upper Bering Glacier and Bagley Ice Field), were opening in eastern Bagley Ice Field and in the “Stellet” side of Bagley Ice Field. The type of crevasses seen in the new fields suggested that the surge was propagating into these areas. By analysis and interpretation of the brittle-deformation patterns apparent in the crevasse patterns, some aspects of the past kinematic framework of the surge can be deduced. This approach may lead to a more general classification of ice-surface structures and to their linkage to ongoing processes.

Water and sediment discharge from a large surging glacier: Bering Glacier, Alaska, U.S.A., summer 1994

The water and sediment output from Vitus Lake, in Front of Bering Glacier, was monitored starting in July 1994, Instrumentation was placed in the lake outlet to record stage, turbidity, conductivity and temperature and velocity of flow of river water. Two outburst floods punctuated the termination of the 1993–94 Bering Glacier surge in August 1994. The better-documented flood lasted about 10 d, during which the flood discharge averaged 1100 m3s−1, in excess of normal discharge (1550 m3s−1) during this part of the ablation season, and about 9.5 × 108m3of water drained from Bering Glacier. The excess water volume discharged during this flood corresponds to a 0.4 m thick layer of water extending over the 2500 km2of Bering Glacier that was surging in early summer. The suspended-sediment flux from Vitus Lake during the summer of 1994 was two orders of magnitude less than rates of sediment production by other fast-moving glaciers in southern Alaska. This implies that most of the sediment produced is being stored in Vitus Lake, under the glacier, or in both locations.

20th-century glacial-marine sedimentation in Vitus Lake, Bering Glacier, Alaska, U. S. A.

Vitus Lake, the ice-marginal basin at the southeastern edge of Bering Glacier, Alaska, U.S.A., is a site of modern, rapid, glacial-marine sedimentation. Rather than being a fresh-water lake, Vitus Lake is a tidally influenced, marine to brackish embayment connected to the Pacifie Ocean by an inlet, the Seal River. Vitus Lake consists of five deep bedrock basins, separated by interbasinal highs. Glacial erosion has cut these basins as much as 250 m below sea level. High-resolution seismic reflection surveys conducted in 1991 and 1993 of four of Vitus Lake’s basins reveal a complex, variable three-component acoustic stratigraphy. Although not fully sampled, the stratigraphy is inferred to be primarily glacial-marine units of (1) basal contorted and deformed glacial-marine and glacial sediments deposited by basal ice-contact processes and submarine mass-wasting; (2) acoustically well-stratified glacial-marine sediment, which unconformably overlies the basal unit and which grades upward into (3) acoustically transparent or nearly transparent glacial-marine sediment. Maximum thicknesses of conformable glacial-marine sediment exceed 100 m. All of the acoustically transparent and stratified deposits in Vitus Lake are modern in age, having accumulated between 1967 and 1993. The basins where these three-part sequences of “present-day” glacial-marine sediment are accumulating are themselves cut into older sequences of stratified glacial and glacial-marine deposits. These older units outcrop on the islands in Vitus Lake.In 1967, as the result of a major surge, glacier ice completely filled all five basins. Subsequent terminus retreat, which continued through August 1993, exposed these basins, providing new locations for glacial-marine sediment accumulation. A correlation of sediment thicknesses measured from seismic profiles at specific locations within the basins, with the year that each location became ice-free, shows that the sediment accumulation at some locations exceeds 10 m year−1.

20th-century glacial-marine sedimentation in Vitus Lake, Bering Glacier, Alaska, U. S. A.

Vitus Lake, the ice-marginal basin at the southeastern edge of Bering Glacier, Alaska, U.S.A., is a site of modern, rapid, glacial-marine sedimentation. Rather than being a fresh-water lake, Vitus Lake is a tidally influenced, marine to brackish embayment connected to the Pacifie Ocean by an inlet, the Seal River. Vitus Lake consists of five deep bedrock basins, separated by interbasinal highs. Glacial erosion has cut these basins as much as 250 m below sea level. High-resolution seismic reflection surveys conducted in 1991 and 1993 of four of Vitus Lake’s basins reveal a complex, variable three-component acoustic stratigraphy. Although not fully sampled, the stratigraphy is inferred to be primarily glacial-marine units of (1) basal contorted and deformed glacial-marine and glacial sediments deposited by basal ice-contact processes and submarine mass-wasting; (2) acoustically well-stratified glacial-marine sediment, which unconformably overlies the basal unit and which grades upward into (3) acoustically transparent or nearly transparent glacial-marine sediment. Maximum thicknesses of conformable glacial-marine sediment exceed 100 m. All of the acoustically transparent and stratified deposits in Vitus Lake are modern in age, having accumulated between 1967 and 1993. The basins where these three-part sequences of “present-day” glacial-marine sediment are accumulating are themselves cut into older sequences of stratified glacial and glacial-marine deposits. These older units outcrop on the islands in Vitus Lake.In 1967, as the result of a major surge, glacier ice completely filled all five basins. Subsequent terminus retreat, which continued through August 1993, exposed these basins, providing new locations for glacial-marine sediment accumulation. A correlation of sediment thicknesses measured from seismic profiles at specific locations within the basins, with the year that each location became ice-free, shows that the sediment accumulation at some locations exceeds 10 m year−1.

Water and sediment discharge from a large surging glacier: Bering Glacier, Alaska, U.S.A., summer 1994

The water and sediment output from Vitus Lake, in Front of Bering Glacier, was monitored starting in July 1994, Instrumentation was placed in the lake outlet to record stage, turbidity, conductivity and temperature and velocity of flow of river water. Two outburst floods punctuated the termination of the 1993–94 Bering Glacier surge in August 1994. The better-documented flood lasted about 10 d, during which the flood discharge averaged 1100 m3 s−1, in excess of normal discharge (1550 m3 s−1) during this part of the ablation season, and about 9.5 × 108 m3 of water drained from Bering Glacier. The excess water volume discharged during this flood corresponds to a 0.4 m thick layer of water extending over the 2500 km2 of Bering Glacier that was surging in early summer. The suspended-sediment flux from Vitus Lake during the summer of 1994 was two orders of magnitude less than rates of sediment production by other fast-moving glaciers in southern Alaska. This implies that most of the sediment produced is being stored in Vitus Lake, under the glacier, or in both locations.

Bering Glacier resumes its surge

Bering Glacier has started to surge again following a 7‐month period of minor retreat and near‐stagnation. Part of the terminus advanced about 750 m between May 19 and June 1.Bering—the largest surging temperate glacier on Earth—recently experienced a major, 17‐month‐long surge that ended in September 1994. That surge displaced the terminus by a maximum of about 9 km and caused a substantial increase in iceberg production. It also covered the islands within Vitus Lake completely or partially with ice [Eos, 74, 321–322, 521; Eos, 75, 549] and caused significant changes in the lake's size, bathymetry, hydrology, and water chemistry. The latest surge is overriding two of these islands, which are home to many species of waterfowl, including the endangered dusky snow goose, at the peak of the nesting season.

Geodetic measurements used to estimate ice transfer during Bering Glacier surge

The application of geodetic measurements to glacial research has found a new testing ground: near a surging Alaskan glacier. A set of geodetic measurements collected adjacent to the Bagley Icefield (Figure 1) and along the Gulf of Alaska (Figure 2) are being used to estimate the effects of the Bering Glacier surge that began in the spring of 1993. When ice is removed from a glacier's reservoir during a surge, its surface lowers by tens or hundreds of meters and ice is added to the receiving area, where it thickens and advances.The dramatic changes in a surging glacier's extent and thickness should result in elastic deformation of the solid Earth. At Bering Glacier, calculations show that ice transfer may have caused up to 17 cm of the solid Earth to subside. Although recent surges at the Bering and Variegated Glaciers have been well documented, little is known about most surges, particularly about what happens in the upper reaches of the glaciers.

HOLOCENE HISTORY OF BERING GLACIER, ALASKA: A PRELUDE TO THE 1993–1994 SURGE

Within the last few centuries, Bering Glacier, the largest and longest glacier in continental North America, began to retreat from its Neoglacial maximum position. This position also represents the Holocene maximum extent of the glacier. For much of the period between 8000 yr B.P. and about 1500 yr B.P., the Bering Glacier was in a retracted position, although a readvance may have occurred about 5000 yr B.P. A major readvance began about 1500 yr B.P., culminating with the glacier reaching its Holocene maximum extent between 1000 and 500 years ago. During the last millennium, the glacier margin fluctuated near this maximum position, only beginning to retreat within the last 100–200 years. This century, the recession from the Neoglacial maximum position has been interrupted by at least six surges that have displaced parts of the glacier's terminus forward. Prior to the latest surge, beginning in 1993, retreat resulted in the net loss of more than 130 km2 of glacier in the terminus region, as much as 12 km o...

Miniature high-power impulse transmitter for radio-echo sounding

AbstractWe have developed a miniature high-power impulse transmitter for radio-echo sounding of glaciers. It features two synchronous second break-down pulse generators operating in a differential configuration. Specifications include bipolar 550 V pulses having rise times less than 2 ns, 512 Hz repetition rate, 180 mA at 10-14 V d.c. operating power, 5 mA standby current and maximum dimension of 12 cm. Because of its small size and low power consumption, the transmitter is suitable for back-portable systems and for towed arrays. The transmitter first saw service in 1990 on Trapridge Glacier, Yukon Territory. Subsequent copies have been used on Agassiz Ice Cap, Northwest Territories, Bering Glacier, Alaska and elsewhere. To date, the maximum ice thickness measured using this transmitter is 825 m, on temperate Bering Glacier.

Miniature high-power impulse transmitter for radio-echo sounding

AbstractWe have developed a miniature high-power impulse transmitter for radio-echo sounding of glaciers. It features two synchronous second break-down pulse generators operating in a differential configuration. Specifications include bipolar 550 V pulses having rise times less than 2 ns, 512 Hz repetition rate, 180 mA at 10-14 V d.c. operating power, 5 mA standby current and maximum dimension of 12 cm. Because of its small size and low power consumption, the transmitter is suitable for back-portable systems and for towed arrays. The transmitter first saw service in 1990 on Trapridge Glacier, Yukon Territory. Subsequent copies have been used on Agassiz Ice Cap, Northwest Territories, Bering Glacier, Alaska and elsewhere. To date, the maximum ice thickness measured using this transmitter is 825 m, on temperate Bering Glacier.

Major surge of the Bering Glacier

Definitive evidence has been obtained in the last few weeks documenting that a new and potentially major surge of Bering Glacier is beginning. According to Bruce F. Molnia, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Va., and spokesperson for a USGS research group that includes Austin Post, Dennis Trabant, and Robert Krimmel, as of June 28, several hundred kilometers of the glacier were involved in the surge, displaying intensive crevassing, displaced moraines, ice overriding previously exposed bedrock, and pressure ridge development (Figure 1).

Pleistocene sediment sources, debris transport mechanisms, and depositional environments: a Bering Glacier model applied to northeastern Appalachian Plateau deglaciation, central New York

A modified ice-tongue model suggests that subglacial, saturated, fine sediment derived from local bedrock sources reduced basal shear strength and lowered the ice surface gradient sufficiently to produce ice tongues 20 km long in all major north-south oriented valleys on the northeastern Appalachian Plateau, while adjacent uplands were virtually ice-free. Associated environments of deposition produced two different landform assemblages, one representative of active ice retreat in through valleys and another that depicts widespread stagnation in non-through valleys. Pebble count data indicate that sediment transport by glacial flow was important to the moraine-building process, but the occurrence of isolated kame fields suggests an origin linked to inwash from major upland tributaries. All coarse valley fill (sand and gravel) is derived from two basic sources: (1) re-worked upland drift, and (2) resedimented debris from upvalley sources, including the glacier. Processes common to through valleys favor upvalley sources and active ice landforms, whereas inwash and stagnant ice sedimentation are typical of non-through valleys. Although extensive ice-free uplands served as a source of some fine sediment, a comparison of sediment volume to upland area indicates that inwash processes could not have yielded sufficient fines to account for the volume of fine sand and silt found within the valley fill. Meltwater flow via subglacial tunnels discharged saturated, fine sediment directly into proglacial lakes and served as the major source and transport mechanism for most sand and silt. The Laurentide deglacial environment throughout the upper Susquehanna region was characterized by proglacial lakes, detached remnant ice masses, dead-ice sedimentation and collapsed ice tongues. Stagnation and downwasting in ice-contact lakes peripheral to the eastern Bering Piedmont Glacier, Alaska, serve to depict analog conditions for retreat in central New York.

Bering Glacier may be in retreat

The Bering Glacier, the largest (6000 km2) and longest (200 km) glacier in North America, may be undergoing a stage of irreversible calving retreat, said Bruce Molnia of the U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Va. The situation there today appears to be a rapid breaking apart of blocks of ice (icebergs). The retreat has resulted in the formation of Vitus Lake (Figure 1), a large freshwater, icemarginal lake, which may evolve into a saltwater bay or fiord system, said Molnia, the spokesperson for a USGS research group that includes Austin Post, Dennis C. Trabant, and James W. Schoonmaker.Unlike most glaciers that lose ice through melting, calving glaciers like Bering end in bodies of water, such as lakes, and lose icebergs from their termini or margins through fracturing or fragmentation. The icebergs, influenced by surface currents and wind, then drift away. During the past 80 years, retreat of the Bering Glacier has resulted in much of its terminus becoming an iceberg calving margin.

Surface Sedimentary Units of Northern Gulf of Alaska Continental Shelf

Four major sedimentary units are present on the seafloor of the continental shelf in the northern Gulf of Alaska. These units, defined on the basis of seismic and sedimentologic data, are: (1) Holocene sediments, (2) Holocene end moraines, (3) Quaternary glacial marine sediments, and (4) Tertiary and Pleistocene lithified deposits. A wedge of Holocene fine sand to clayey silt covers most of the inner shelf, reaching maximum thicknesses of about 350 m seaward of the Copper River and about 200 m seaward of Icy Bay. Holocene end moraines are present at the mouth of Icy Bay, south of Bering Glacier, and at the mouth of Yakutat Bay. Quaternary glacial marine sediments lie in a narrow arc that borders on the north and west side of Tarr Bank and in a large arc 20 km or more offshore that parallels the shoreline between Kayak Island and Yakutat Bay. Tertiary or Pleistocene stratified sedimentary rocks, which in profile commonly are folded, faulted, and truncated, crop out on Tarr Bank, offshore of Montague Island, and in several localities southeast and southwest of Cape Yakataga. The lack of Holocene cover on Tarr Bank and Middleton, Kayak, and Montague Island platforms may be due to the scouring action of swift bottom currents and large storm waves. West of Kayak Island the Copper River is the primary source of Holocene sediment. East of Kayak Island the major sediment sources are streams draining the larger ice fields, notably the Malaspina and Bering Glaciers. Transport of bottom and suspended sediment is predominantly to the west. If deglaciation of the shelf was completed by 10,000 years B.P., maximum rates of accumulation of Holocene sediment on the inner shelf may be as high as 10 to 35 m per 1,000 years.

Periodic Surge Origin of Folded Medial Moraines on Bering Piedmont Glacier, Alaska

Abstract The vast Bering piedmont glacier, which has large folds in the medial moraines in its terminal lobe, recently experienced two surges with a combined ice displacement of as much as 13 km. Vertical aerial photographs taken before and after the surges disclose the direction and magnitude of ice flow in various parts of the piedmont lobe. The ice moved toward the terminus and expanded in a normal, radial pattern with no evidence of unusual shearing that would result in the formation of large folds. Many surging glaciers display repeated lateral displacements in their medial moraines which result from periodic surging of the main glacier past non-surging tributaries. Moraines of Bering Glacier display small periodic irregularities of this nature. The large “accordion” folds in the moraines in the piedmont lobe are judged to be due to the combined effects of compressive flow and lateral or transverse expansion of these previously formed irregularities. The initially small pre-existing perturbations in the moraines are simply spread laterally and shortened radially into large folds as the ice spreads out. A very large debris band composed of repeatedly folded medial moraines extends across the center of the Bering Glacier lobe. These remarkable folds are thought to result from the deformation of surge-related irregularities in medial moraines as they pass through the zone of intensive shear near the glacier’s margin.

Periodic Surge Origin of Folded Medial Moraines on Bering Piedmont Glacier, Alaska

AbstractThe vast Bering piedmont glacier, which has large folds in the medial moraines in its terminal lobe, recently experienced two surges with a combined ice displacement of as much as 13 km. Vertical aerial photographs taken before and after the surges disclose the direction and magnitude of ice flow in various parts of the piedmont lobe. The ice moved toward the terminus and expanded in a normal, radial pattern with no evidence of unusual shearing that would result in the formation of large folds. Many surging glaciers display repeated lateral displacements in their medial moraines which result from periodic surging of the main glacier past non-surging tributaries. Moraines of Bering Glacier display small periodic irregularities of this nature. The large “accordion” folds in the moraines in the piedmont lobe are judged to be due to the combined effects of compressive flow and lateral or transverse expansion of these previously formed irregularities. The initially small pre-existing perturbations in the moraines are simply spread laterally and shortened radially into large folds as the ice spreads out.A very large debris band composed of repeatedly folded medial moraines extends across the center of the Bering Glacier lobe. These remarkable folds are thought to result from the deformation of surge-related irregularities in medial moraines as they pass through the zone of intensive shear near the glacier’s margin.

Late Wisconsin and Neoglacial History of the Martin River Glacier, Alaska

The Martin River Glacier, in south-central Alaska, was studied only casually prior to the first expedition sent there in 1962 from the University of North Dakota. Subsequently, reports have been published on almost all aspects except the glacial history, which has been difficult to ascertain. The interpretation is now presented that the outermost terminal moraine of the Martin River Glacier, in south-central Alaska, is anomalously late Wisconsin in age; all lateral moraines converge at or upglacier from this moraine, indicating that if the glacier ever extended farther downvalley, the evidence is still missing. It is possible, however, that prior to that time, the glacier wasa tide-water glacier. The debris-veneered, dead-ice area near the present terminus of the glacier marks the maximum Neoglacial advance, which culminated about 1650 A. D. Although the main lobe has been thinning and retreating ever since, a small moraine formed during a 1910 advance is present in the valley of the Charlotte Lobe. Tree-ring measurements document the past 400 yrs of this glacier and permit the interpretation that the striking change in degree of soil development, at the 14th of the 21 successive lateral moraines of the Charlotte Lobe, separates the Neoglacial from the Late Wisconsin ice levels. The close proximity of the Neoglacial limit of the Martin River Glacier to the terminal moraine is most likely the result of tectonic uplift of the Chugach Mountains in Neoglacial time. The change effected in the accumulation area may have resulted in diversion of more ice from the Bagley Ice Field into the Martin River Glacier. It may also have initiated the surging flow that has occurred in this and the neighboring Bering Glacier. Neoglacial uplift has complicated the interpretation of the past history of the Martin River Glacier.