RECENT GLACIER CHANGES IN THE WIND RIVER RANGE, WYOMING

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Parallax measurements on matching aerial photograph stereopairs from 1958 and 1983 were used to calculate the ice lost from Dinwoody Glacier in the Wind River Range of Wyoming. The ice remaining in Dinwoody Glacier was measured using a portable radio echo-sounder. Isopach maps of lost ice thickness and remaining ice thickness in the glacier were constructed from these point measurements. Calculations of lost and remaining ice volumes, converted to water-equivalent values, were derived from planimetric measurements from these isopach maps. The water equivalent remaining in Dinwoody Glacier is approximately equal to that lost between 1958 and 1983. Should this rate of downwasting and retreat continue, Dinwoody Glacier will disappear in 27 years, with significant adverse impacts on late summer and early fall water supplies for downstream irrigators and instream flow needs. [Key words: glaciers, glacier runoff, radio echo-sounding, Wind River Range, Wyoming.]