Top of this page

Mass Balance, Meteorological, Ice Motion, Surface Altitude, and Runoff Data at Gulkana Glacier, Alaska, 1993 Balance Year

by Rod S. March and Dennis C. Trabant

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
Water-Resources Investigations Report 96-4299

ABSTRACT

The 1993 measured winter snow, maximum winter snow, net, and annual balances in the Gulkana Glacier basin were evaluated on the basis of meteorological, hydrological, and glaciological data measured in the basin and are reported herein. Averaged over the glacier, the measured winter snow balance was 0.81 meter on March 31, 1993, 1.2 standard deviations below the long-term average; the maximum winter snow balance, 0.84 meter, was reached on May 10, 1993 and remained until May 11, 1993; the net balance (from August 18, 1992 to September 8, 1993) was 1.80 meters, the most negative balance year on record at 2.8 standard deviations below the long-term average. The annual balance (October 1, 1992 to September 30, 1993) was 1.64 meters. Ice-surface motion and altitude changes measured at three index sites document seasonal ice speed and glacier thickness changes. Annual stream runoff was 1.996 meters averaged over the basin, 0.2 standard deviations above the long-term average.

March, R.S., and Trabant, D.C., 1997, Mass balance, meteorological, ice motion, surface altitude, and runoff data at Gulkana Glacier, Alaska, 1993 balance year: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 96-4299, 30 p.

  [Full Report, Acrobat PDF (3.4 MB)]

Adobe Acrobat's .pdf (portable document file) format can be viewed using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader available for DOS, Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX. This link will allow you to get the free download and installation instructions from Adobe.