Thursday, November 3, 2011

Glaciers Growing In US

Even though last winter’s historic snowpack has not yet melted, new snow is already piling up in the Rocky Mountain high country. As a result, some glaciers and snowfields are growing.

In Montana’s Glacier National Park, in Colorado’s Front Range, in Wyoming’s Grand Tetons, the glaciers and snowfields are actually gaining volume.

When Bob Comey, director of the Bridger-Teton National Forest Avalanche Center, compared photographs of peaks in northwest Wyoming from year to year – images taken before the snow started falling again this autumn – he found “significantly” more ice in the Teton Range compared with two years ago.

“I’ve never seen a season with a gain like we’ve seen this summer,” Comey said.

On Arikaree Glacier some 20 miles west of Boulder, Colorado, scientist Nel Caine said he measured between 2 and 3 feet of snow from last winter and spring still remaining in late September.

Meanwhile, scientists have measured a “very modest” increase on Sperry Glacier in Montana’s Glacier National Park.

Mind you, these are not the only glaciers growing in the United States. Glaciers are also growing in California, Alaska and Washington state.

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