Non-Glacial Glacier Videos

May 4, 2012 9:07 PM

The Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska moves less than a foot a day, but thanks to Extreme Ice Survey you can now watch three years of movement happen in just over a minute complete with a glacier expert explaining what you're seeing. You can also watch giant glacier pieces break into the water and many other non-glacial glacier videos. Finally, some info to make you more of a glacier expert yourself.
posted by Defenestrator (5 comments total)

Its hard to shake the feeling that I'm watching the glacier die.
posted by Slackermagee at 9:56 PM on May 4, 2012 [2 favorites]

It does have a breathing quality to it. It stretches out, and then "deflates", over and over.
posted by hanoixan at 11:46 PM on May 4, 2012

The "calving" video was awesome (like the others), but I so wish they would post the full, real-time video (with sound, if they have it). I know things look cooler sped up, but sometimes I wish I could see it the way it really happened.
posted by Max Udargo at 12:28 AM on May 5, 2012

I spent most of my growing up in this glacial valley (and the rest of it in the area). The glacier was a lot closer when I was young child in the 1970s. Global warming is certainly going on, but there also has been a long term (since the 18th century) receding of the glaciers in Southeast Alaska as the end of the local “Little Ice Age” (as it is known).

But yeah, having watched this glacier for forty years, it hasn’t just receded a lot, it has very noticeably deflated.
posted by D.C. at 4:52 AM on May 5, 2012 [2 favorites]

Max, you'd be watching through 2015 :)
posted by effugas at 11:33 PM on May 5, 2012