Glacier ‘melt’ out of step?

Press, 20 January 1982, Page 18

Glacier ‘melt’ out of step?

An Alaskan glacier described by scientists as out of step with geological time will be dumping millions of tonnes of ice in the paths of oil tankers this northern summer, a glaciologist predicts.

The Columbia Glacier, ending near the mouth of the oil port of Valdez, is in a rapid retreat never before witnessed by scientists, said Mr Michael Meier, of the United States Geological Survey, in Tacoma, Washington, in an interview.

Since 1978, the 65 km-long glacier has retreated 2 km, leaving behind an increasing number of icebergs.

The rate of retreat is expected to rise to 4 km a year by the mid-1980s, with up to 27 million tonnes of ice a day dropping into the waters of Prince William Sound.

By contrast, the 1100 sq km glacier dropped less than four million tonnes of ice a day last summer, Mr Meier said.

The danger to shipping from icebergs would decrease every year after the mid-1980s, he noted, as the terminus of the glacier got farther away from Valdez. The reason for the rapid retreat remained a mystery, Mr Meier said. He discounted the theory that an increased release of carbon-dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels was warming the atmosphere. creating a “greenhouse effect" that would melt the world's ice sheets and raise sea levels.

Mr Meier said the Columbia Glacier simply seems to be a “late bloomer,” centuries out of step with other glaciers that retreated long ago.