Browsing by Author "Vallis, Vanessa Gail Sakiko"

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    Investigating the effects of topography on glaciers in the Purcell and Rocky Mountain Ranges during the LIA and in 2005
    (2013-04-25) Vallis, Vanessa Gail Sakiko; Sjogren, Darren; Osborn, Gerald
    The purpose of this study is to investigate the spatial variability of glaciers and how topography affects disparate glacier response to climate change in the Canadian Cordillera. This research identifies topographic variables which may have affected glacier response to climate during and after the Little Ice Age (LIA). Changes in glacier area, shape, length, elevation, height, aspect, hypsometry, slope and upslope area were measured for sixteen glaciers from orthophotos and digital surface models (DSM). DSMs were created to represent glacier surface elevation in 2005. LIA glacier surfaces were reconstructed by interpolating the elevation along the former margin. Multivariate statistics were used to determine which topographic variables explained variance in glacier geometry. Glacier sensitivity scores based on the topographic characters of each glacier were developed and calculated. Glacier cover in the study area has decreased by 49.4 % with an estimated volume loss of 1.97 ± 0.2 km³.