Volume loss from Bering Glacier (Alaska), 1972 - 2003: comment on Muskett and others (2009)

• Main Author: Berthier, Etienne
• Other Authors: Laboratoire d'études en Géophysique et océanographie spatiales (LEGOS), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Météo France-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Météo France-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2010
• Subjects: [SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography; Gulf of Alaska; glacier; glaciers; Journal of Glaciology; Alaska
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00537726; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00537726/document; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00537726/file/Berthier_JOG_2010_Comment_on_M09.pdf

International audience Alaskan glaciers have experienced rapid and accelerating wastage over the past four to five decades (Arendt and others, 2002) and accounted for 0.120.02mma–1 (7.5%) of total sea-level rise between 1962 and 2006 (Berthier and others, 2010). Ice loss in Alaska is dominated by a few large glaciers located in the vicinity of the Gulf of Alaska (e.g. Columbia, Malaspina and Bering Glaciers). Among them, the Bering Glacier system (BGS) is often regarded as the largest glacier system in North America, with an area of nearly 4400km² (Beedle and others, 2008), or > 5000km² if the accumulation area of Tana Glacier is included (Molnia, 2007).