Metro Vancouver’s last remaining glacier ‘dying in front of our very eyes’
Coquitlam Glacier, shrinking due to climate change, will likely vanish by 2050, says Metro Vancouver geoscientist Dave Dunkley
Author of the article:Tiffany Crawford
Publishing date:Apr 10, 2022 • 19 hours ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
LEFT: Coquitlam Glacier in 2006. Note, the bedrock is not as exposed in this image. RIGHT: The same glacier in 2021 as it retreats and shrinks in depth due to climate change. Note how much of the bedrock exposed rock in the left-middle of the glacier. The 2021 image shows the glacier flattening (result of downwasting/melting in place) in a more "pancake-like" condition.
LEFT: Coquitlam Glacier in 2006. Note, the bedrock is not as exposed in this image. RIGHT: The same glacier in 2021 as it retreats and shrinks in depth due to climate change. Note how much of the bedrock exposed rock in the left-middle of the glacier. The 2021 image shows the glacier flattening (result of downwasting/melting in place) in a more "pancake-like" condition. PHOTO BY DAVE DUNKLEY
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Metro Vancouver’s last remaining glacier is rapidly shrinking because of human-induced climate change and could disappear within three decades, says a geoscientist.
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Dave Dunkley, a geoscientist with Metro Vancouver who has been studying the glacier for more than 15 years, said it will likely be gone by 2050, which will mean no more cool glacier water feeding into the region’s reservoirs.
“It’s always shocking to go back, and especially when I look at the 2006 photo,” he said. “As you approached the glacier, when you walked up to it, it was it was quite steep, quite high. It was a fairly intact giant ice cube.
“But now the changes are quite dramatic … there are way more crevices and more water running off in the summer. There’s a piece that’s carved up, it’s just broken right off.”
Dunkley said the Coquitlam Glacier is in a death spiral. He added that continued study of the glacier’s retreat is vital so the region can plan for more climate-change resilience, including finding another water source.
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“The glacier is dying in front of our very eyes there,” he said. “It’s really sad. To me, it’s like losing an endangered species.”
The Coquitlam Glacier, pictured in 2006. The bedrock is not as exposed in the left-middle of the glacier.
The Coquitlam Glacier, pictured in 2006. The bedrock is not as exposed in the left-middle of the glacier. PHOTO BY DAVE DUNKLEY
The Coquitlam Glacier, pictured in 2021.
The Coquitlam Glacier, pictured in 2021. PHOTO BY DAVE DUNKLEY
By point of comparison, in 2008 Dunkley estimated the glacier would be gone within 100 years.
Without the glacier, snowpacks will melt earlier and, with more intense heat waves, water consumption will go up in the region. Dunkley said they need to plan now for more water conservation.
“We have switched to outdoor watering twice a week to once a week in the summer, but in the future it wouldn’t surprise me if there was no outdoor watering in the summer.”
Dunkley said he really noticed changes to the Coquitlam Glacier after the drought in 2015. That summer was one of the province’s worst droughts on record. An early heat wave and hot, dry conditions led to severe water rationing measure over much of the southern part of B.C.
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“That level of drought, that was something we imagined in 2050, not 2015,” he said.
Metro Vancouver’s last remaining glacier, the Coquitlam Glacier, is shrinking because of human-induced climate change.
Metro Vancouver’s last remaining glacier, the Coquitlam Glacier, is shrinking because of human-induced climate change. PHOTO BY METRO VANCOUVER /PNG
Heat waves, like B.C.’s deadly heat dome last June, will accelerate the melt of already fragile glaciers, say experts. Dozens of temperature records were shattered during the heat dome, including a Canadian record of 49.6 C in Lytton.
Climate scientists, who have linked the heat dome to the human-induced climate crisis, say the warming planet will lead to more intense and frequent disasters such as heat waves, drought, floods and wildfires.
Brian Menounos, the Canada research chair in glacier change at the University of Northern British Columbia, said that during the heat wave the temperature was six degrees above average even at elevations of 3,000 metres.
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Menounos said Thursday that last year was a record in terms of mass loss for some of B.C.’s glaciers, particularly those in the southern part of the province like in Garibaldi Park and the Comox Glacier on Vancouver Island.
Garibaldi’s Lava Glacier, for example, had a dramatic loss of three metres in most areas and up six metres in some parts after the heat dome, he said.
The Comox Glacier will disappear by mid century, Menounos estimated.
Source: Etienne Berthier (Legos) and the Pleiades Glacier Observatory. And the Hakai Institute for the LIDAR equipment. Images show how much the elevation changed after the heat dome to one of the glaciers at Garibaldi Park.
Source: Etienne Berthier (Legos) and the Pleiades Glacier Observatory. And the Hakai Institute for the LIDAR equipment. Images show how much the elevation changed after the heat dome to one of the glaciers at Garibaldi Park.
In addition to the heat dome, B.C. also had a devastating wildfire season. He said ash and smoke darkened the surface of some glaciers, causing them to absorb more energy from the sun.
“It was a really bad year for glaciers,” he said, adding that B.C.’s smaller glaciers will continue to melt until they disappear.
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“It is sad. Even if society stopped emitting greenhouse gases we would find that glaciers would continue to lose mass simply because they’re out of equilibrium with climate,” he said.
Still, he added there is hope for some of B.C.’s larger glaciers in the north if the world can put the brakes on greenhouse-gas emissions and limit warming to 1.5 C.
“We have to recognize that these glaciers are really important freshwater resources, and we need to find collective and innovative ways to continue the monitoring going forward,” said Menounos.
— with a file from The Canadian Press
ticrawford@postmedia.com
twitter.com/tiffycrawford13
Coquitlam Glacier, shrinking due to climate change, will likely vanish by 2050, says Metro Vancouver geoscientist Dave Dunkley.
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