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B.C. glaciers have shrunk “dramatically” in the last decade, losing mass at four times the rate of the previous decade, according to a first-of-its-kind study from the University of Northern B.C.

The researchers are calling their work the “first comprehensive assessment of glacier mass loss for all regions in western North America,” outside of Alaska.

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They used satellites to produce elevation models of the over 15,000 icefields and found that on average, the glaciers in B.C.’s south and central Coast Mountains receded by about a half metre a year between 2000 and 2018.

“Our study was the first time consistent data sets showed how the glaciers had changed over the last 18 years,” said the lead researcher, UNBC geography professor Brian Menounos.

The decline of glaciers in the first two decades of the century was significant and the last decade it was dramatic, he said.

“Our work provides a detailed picture of the current health of glaciers and ice outside of Alaska than what we’ve ever had before,” said Menounos, who worked with assistant geography professor Joseph Shea, PhD students Ben Pelto and Christina Tennant and other researchers on the paper published in the Geophysical Research Letters journal.