Article content continued

The study by the World Glacier Monitoring Service, which includes glaciologist Mike Demuth from Natural Resources Canada, suggested the global phenomenon will continue even without further climate change.

Two of Canada’s glaciers included in the observations are the Athabasca and Peyto Glaciers, which are both also being studied by Pomeroy and his team.

The Athabasca, monitored by the federal government for years, has lost more than five metres of ice thickness for each of the last two years.

“To have two right after each other is a concern,” said Pomeroy.

They saw an early melt season as the ice became exposed as early as May. It continued to be exposed throughout the summer until some snow hit the glacier in September.

“So earlier melt, but also faster melt because of the very warm temperatures,” said Pomeroy, noting the temperatures on the ice surface hit 13 C in June and 16 C in July. “That’s pretty warm for the middle of the Columbia Icefield.

It meant the snow cover melted early and, once the white snow melts and the ice is exposed, the glacier absorbs more solar radiation and also melts.

It didn’t help that the ice was dark due to debris and soot from the forest fires in British Columbia this summer, he said.

Photo by Courtesy: John Pomeroy / For the Calgary Herald

On the Wapta Icefield, which has been researched since the 1960s, Pomeroy said there’s been exposed ice for at least the past two years.

“The top is normally the accumulation zone, where the glaciers accumulate snow, which forms ice and then slows down, but the accumulation zone is melting,” he explained. “That’s a disaster for a glacier.”