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During 1977-1982, Jim Ellis hiked across the Brooks Range of northern Alaska with Dr. Parker Calkin and graduate students from University of Buffalo, Department of Geological Sciences. He created maps of many cirque glaciers and rock glaciers, compiled physical data on each landform, and surveyed 3 glaciers and 3 rock glaciers with a theodolite. He's converted these paper maps to digital files and georeferenced some into GIS to increase access to this unique climatic-change archive.
A 40 minute video presented at the 2008 NE GSA Conference summarizes the glacial mapping story - and discusses recommended future work. This 51 MB video is in Windows Media Player format and available below.
Data were collected in four areas: east-central Brooks Range (centered about Atigun Pass and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline), Arrigetch Peaks, Anatuvuk Pass, and Northeastern Brooks Range. This website provides maps and photographs showing the extent of glaciers during 1977-1982.
Regional maps of the 4 study areas and Landsat images are formatted to display in Google Earth. Zips of .kmz files are at the bottom of this page. Download the zip, open the .kmz and the GIS layers will display in Google Earth. You can fade the map over the image. At each glacier there will be a posting with a ground photograph from 1977-1982 and physical characteristics listed.
Shawnee A. Kasanke was awarded a M.Sc., University of Alaska, Fairbanks in June 2019 based on her Arctic-Alpine vegetation research in the Atigun Pass area, in and around Grizzly Glacier, under the guidance of Dr. D.A. "Skip" Walker, Director, Alaska Geobotany Center. The image on the right shows Grizzly Glacier in 1978 and in 2017. The cirque glacier has melted away! Alarming, rapidly changing climate documented by the glaciers in the Brooks Range.
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| Click on Image to Enlarge - 1979 Buffalo Glacier |
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