Changing Glaciers: Glacier Mass Balance, global glacier recession and water shortages
In this video, Dr Bethan Davies discusses the mechanics of glacier mass balance, and how climate change is affecting mountain glaciers worldwide. She then illustrates how global glacier recession is producing water shortages in the Andes and Himalaya.
- AQA Glacial Systems and Landscapes, glaciers as natural systems, glacial budgets, recent and prospective impact of climate change.
- OCR Glaciated Landscapes: systems and glacier mass balance; influence of climate on glaciated landscape; specific skills in mass balance calculations.
Below is a Q&A on the discussion.
This Summary Sheet for A-Level Geography students gives key pointers about glacier mass balance, including glacier budgets, accumulation and ablation.
Changing glaciers: glacier mass balance summaryCase Study: USGS Benchmark Glaciers
The USGS has an excellent resource on the mass balance of Lemon Creek Glacier, a World Reference Glacier, and the other USGS Benchmark Glaciers.
Lemon Creek Glacier, Alaska
This has resulted in a publication showing a reanalysis of the USGS Benchmark Glaciers (O’Neel et al., 2019). Point data were collected at each glacier over many years. These point datasets allow glacier-wide mass balance to be calculated.
The data are available for download from the Alaska Science Centre.
The A-Level Geography activity below guides students to explore the 5 USGS Benchmark Glaciers and their changing mass balance over time.
Glacier mass balance activityThis Excel document gives some example data analysis and some example answers for the students.
Mass balance climate change glacier recession
