Between August 4 and 6 a record breaking flood of water gushed down the Mendenhall Valley in Alaska, north of Juneau, and did 'decades worth' of erosion in a single weekend. Scientists say this event would not be possible without climate change.
Not every retreating glacier in Alaska is at risk for these glacial lake outburst floods, but those that are can have very serious consequences downstream. These floods can happen in different ways, but all begin with a lake of meltwater or rainwater runoff that is blocked from draining by an ice dam. When the dam breaks, the lake can suddenly drain in a massive pulse.
Two photos taken more than a century apart show the retreat of the Mendenhall and Suicide Glaciers between 1893 and 2018 . Suicide Glacier has retreated up onto a ridge. A meltwater lake now fills the lower basin, dammed by the Mendenhall Glacier. Photos from theWhat is also seen in the picture is a rather large valley or bowl, known as a topographic depression, that has been carved out of this mountainous area where Suicide Glacier once was.
Although human-caused global warming is the reason that these floods are occurring at all, there are many other factors that determine when and where any given year’s flood will occur and how big it will be.
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