The Glaciers of Kenai Fjords
Measuring Climate Change

Warm Ice
How Alaska’s Glaciers are Responding to Climate Change
with Bruce Molnia, Ph.D.
Dr. Bruce Molnia, the leading expert on Alaskan glaciers, presented his findings from this expedition to the Kenai Fjords last August in this free webinar. Click here to view.
The Mission
In August 2021, the Endeavour took a team of scientists to the glaciers in Kenai Fjords National Park and beyond, southwest of Seward, Alaska.
The purpose of this expedition was to document changes in the glaciers, landscapes, and vegetation within the fiords using repeat photography. The team used the Endeavour to revisit more than 80 historical photo locations in the fjords, some from as early as 1908. Locating each site precisely, the team took new photographs, capturing the same field of view as the historical image. Where the glacier was no longer visible, they established new points of reference closer to the terminus of the glacier for future research. This work gives the world an unequivocal, unambiguous, visual documentation of the effects of global warming, and hard data on its speed and magnitude.

For a more detailed description of the mission of the expedition, click here.
The expedition lead was Dr. Bruce F. Molnia, a scientist emeritus with the US Geological Service, having spent four decades studying glaciers around the world. He is the author or co-author of over 500 publications, including the massive study, Glaciers of Alaska, published in 2008, summarizing his and 250 other investigators’ work on more than 1,000 Alaskan glaciers. His recent work has used rephotography of Alaskan glacier landscapes, comparing modern images to historical images to document the effects of global warming. For a more complete biography of Dr. Molnia, click here.
Shawn Dilles, an image specialist who has worked with Dr. Molnia for more than a decade, has interests in geology, geography, oceanography, and astronomy. He is a Virginia Master Naturalist, member of the Explorer's Club, a Volunteer for Science with the U.S. Geological Survey (where he worked to release over 10,000 maps of Alaska and Hawaii to the public), and at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, where he helped reorganize the worldwide collection of corals, and over 30,000 fossil insects. He is also the editor of The Journal of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers.
Kim Angeli was a cartographer at the US Geological Survey for 40 years, specializing in photogrammetric processing and remote sensing research in support of the USGS Topographic Map series, and on projects related to natural hazards, disasters response, intelligence, global climate change, and environmental research and analysis.
The ship's crew was Bill Urschel, Patsy Urschel, and Chris Clark-Johnson.
Summary Results
The Endeavour left Seward, Alaska, on August 3rd, 2021, on schedule with the team aboard. The weather was generally overcast with some low clouds, but the seas were calm and the temperature was in the mid-50s.
In many places, the team used the Scout, the Endeavour’s riverboat with its propeller-less outboard motor, to get up shallow rivers to the distant terminus of several glaciers and to reach photo locations onshore.
The fjords and glaciers covered include:
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In Resurrection Bay, Prospect, Spoon, and Porcupine glaciers were all obscured by low clouds. Bear Glacier, which is by far the largest in the bay, was clear.
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In Holgate Arm, Holgate and Little Holgate glaciers were clear.
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In Aialik Bay, Aialik, Skee, Lechner, and Pederson glaciers were clear.
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In Northwestern Lagoon, Northwestern, Anchor, and Ogive glaciers were clear.
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The party dubbed one unnamed glacier on the southeast corner of the lagoon “Patsy’s Glacier,” in honor of Patsy Urschel.
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In Southwestern Inlet, Southwestern and Reconstituted glaciers were clear.
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In McCarty Fjord, Little Dinglestadt and McCarty glaciers were partly obscured.
Most of the glaciers showed radical shrinkage from the last set of photos taken in 2007 and 2008 -- not even 15 years ago. From the 1908 locations, most of the glaciers were not even visible. The fjords once packed with ice a thousand feet thick and miles across are now empty air, with all that water lost to the sea.
Aside from what this loss tells us about our warming environment, it shows why - when extended to glaciers and icepacks around the world -- the sea level has risen 8 inches since 1900, with three of those inches in just the last 20 years. Three inches may sound small, but this small increase has caused a 233% increase in tidal flooding across the United States. Dr. Molnia's ongoing work shows us that the melting not only continues, it is accelerating.

The team had hoped to have time to get to Split Glacier in the north arm of Nuka Bay and Yalik and Petrof Glaciers in Nuka Passage, but the NOAA marine forecast for the last day was ominous, predicting 30-knot winds and nine-foot swells in exposed waters, so the team headed back to Seward a day early, ahead of the weather.
In all, over the week, Dr. Molnia and the team located over 75 photo locations, recorded the GPS coordinates and took new photos, and established a dozen new reference locations for future comparisons.
Dr. Molnia is preparing a presentation on the expedition and its results, showing the photos taken in this trip to the historical photos with a discussion of the changes and forces at work. This presentation will be broadcast, recorded, and included here. To be notified of the live broadcast when it happens, and to be able to ask questions of Dr. Molina, subscribe here.
Bill Urschel’s captain’s log of the expedition starts with his entry of August 3, 2021, posted here.
Click here to subscribe to future log posts.
Expedition Photos
Click on the gallery to open.
Resources
Click on a title to download the document or follow the link.
Cold As Ice, An Introduction to Glaciers and Glacier Processes - Molnia (2017)
Satellite Image Atlas of Glaciers of the World, Alaska - Molnia (2008)
This is the definitive study of Alaska Glaciers, edited by Bruce Molnia with contributions by many others. This is a masterpiece of science and history. This isn’t the first book or deck one should read on glaciers (“Cold as Ice” is a good place to start), but everyone with an interest in Alaska glaciers should download this work. It is very large. 554 pages, 92 mb.
Coastal Glaciers of Prince William Sound and Kenai Peninsula - Grant & Higgins (1913)
Geology and Mineral Resources of Kenai Peninsula Alaska - Martin, Johnson, & Grant (1915)
Frozen in Time, The Glaciers of Kenai Fjords - Molnia (2006)
Glacier Photo Collection Sites - Molnia (2021)
In the Footsteps of John Muir, Landscape Change in Southern Alaska - Molnia (2019)
Introduction to Repeat Photography - Molnia (2015)
Field Notes: Listening to the Ice - Kenai Fjords National Park (2013)
See for yourself: Alaska's disappearing glaciers, then and now - Anchorage Daily News (2016)
This article from the Anchorage Daily News profiles Bruce Molnia and his work.
Repeat Photography: Capturing Change - National Park Service (2019)
Repeat Photography of Alaskan Glaciers - US Geological Survey (2012)