The extent of time and the number of vantage points that one can have is what makes observing the huge "melange" of all the crumbling ice in the fjord such a unique experience.
Climbing up over the granite cliffs to the mouth of the fjord and then flying over it was the perfect introduction on Monday and Tuesday. On Friday, the day after we returned from Eqi we took another route further in - part of the "blue" route.
We had seen this trail from our earlier trek. Now much higher up, we spied the boulders where I took a break while Richard walked down by the coast. This new route also allowed us to get closer up along the edge. We could watch how the ice and pools of water pushed against the granite walls. Another incredible opportunity for images and sore feet...
This expansive accumulation of ice is not that unusual for a glacier - the process is to accumulate snow during the winter and then shed ice by calving in the summer.
All of Greenland's glaciers drain from the central ice sheet which covers more than 80% of this island. But this particular glacier's production is extremely prolific - and frightening....
Here are some facts gleaned from an online NASA Observatory (6/11/14) article on Jakobshavn (the Danish name for Ilulissat):
Since 2000, Greenland has lost some 739 gigatons of ice, and approximately 30 percent of that loss came from Jakobshavn and four other glaciers. That loss, along with surface melting, has caused Greenland’s ice sheet to start losing more ice than it gains...
“A good indicator of what a calving event means at a particular glacier is the longer-term position of the calving front,” says NASA Goddard glaciologist Kelly Brunt. This year’s calving event continues a trend that goes back more than a century. Jakobshavn receded more than 40 kilometers (25 miles) between 1850 and 2010. But the retreat is getting faster.
Jakobshavn is Greenland’s fastest-moving glacier, and the flow rate is variable with spurts of speed in the summer and additional variation from year to year. In the summer of 2012, Jakobshavn accelerated to speeds not seen before, surging at a rate of 17 kilometers (10 miles) per year. On average, the glacier moved nearly three times faster in 2012 than it did in the mid-1990s. “When calving fronts recede to a point that we haven’t seen in decades, then that glacial system is probably out of balance, losing more ice than it gains,” says Brunt.
I think these facts might explain my motivation and obsession with this glacier.
I hope the work that's generated from such witnessing, along with my public speaking and outreach activity will justify the carbon footprint I am making....
