Home»All Photographs»Glaciers»Gulkana

Gulkana Glacier is in the Delta Mountains in the far eastern Alaska Range. This is one of the three "benchmark" glaciers in Alaska, and the U.S. Geological Survey has been making surface mass balance measurements here since 1967. We go out there every spring to measure winter accumulation and every fall to measure summer ablation. The cumulative time-series of these measurements shows consistent mass loss (like most glaciers in Alaska). This is corroborated by the measured changes in glacier geometry. The main trunk of the glacier has thinned substantially and the terminus has retreated.