Abstract
Alpine glacier retreat resulting from global warming since the close of the Little Ice Age in the 19th and 20th centuries has increased the risk and incidence of some geologic and hydrologic hazards in mountainous alpine regions of North America. Abundant loose debris in recently deglaciated areas at the toe of alpine glaciers provides a ready source of sediment during rainstorms or outburst floods. This sediment can cause debris flows and sedimentation problems in downstream areas. Moraines built during the Little Ice Age can trap and store large volumes of water. These natural dams have no controlled outlets and can fail without warning. Many glacier-dammed lakes have grown in size, while ice dams have shrunk, resulting in greater risks of ice-dam failure. The retreat and thinning of glacier ice has left oversteepened, unstable valley walls and has led to increased incidence of rock and debris avalanches.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beget, J. E.: 1986, Comment on ‘Outburst floods from glacial Lake Missoula’ by G. K. C. Clarke, W. H. Mathews, and R. T. Pack,Quat. Res. 25, 136–138.
Blown, I. G. and Church, M.: 1985, Catastrophic lake drainage within the Homathko River basin, British Columbia,Can. Geotech. J. 22, 551–563.
Burbank, D. W.: 1982, Correlations of climate, mass balances, and glacial fluctuations at Mount Rainier, Washington, U.S.A., since 1850,Arc. Alp. Res. 14, 137–148.
Carrara, P. E.: 1989, Late Quaternary glacial and vegetative history of the Glacier National Park region, Montana,U.S. Geol. Sur. Bull. 1902.
Chen, J. and Ohmura, A.: 1990, Estimation of Alpine glacier water resources and their change since the 1870s, inHydrology in Mountainous Regions I. Hydrological Measurements; the Water Cycle, Int. Assoc. Hydrological Sciences Pub. No. 193, pp. 127–135.
Church, M., Kellerhals, R., and Day, T. J.: 1989, Regional clastic sediment yield in British Columbia,Can. J. Earth Sci. 26, 31–45.
Church, M. and Ryder, J. M.: 1972, Paraglacial sedimentation: a consideration of fluvial processes conditioned by glaciation,Geol. Soc. America Bull. 83, 3059–3072.
Church, M. and Slaymaker, O.: 1989, Disequilibrium of Holocene sediment yield in glaciated British Columbia,Nature 337, 452–454.
Clague, J. J. and Evans, S. G.: 1992, A self-arresting moraine dam failure, St. Elias Mountains, British Columbia,Current Research, Part A, Geol. Sur. Canada, Paper 92-1A, pp. 185–188.
Clague, J. J., Evans, S. G., and Blown, I. G.: 1985, A debris flow triggered by the breaching of a moraine-dammed lake, Klattasine Creek, British ColumbiaCan. J. Earth Sci. 22, 1492–1502.
Clague, J. J. and Mathews, W. H.: 1973, The magnitude of jökulhlaups,J. Glaciology 12, 501–504.
Clague, J. J. and Mathews, W. H.: 1992, The sedimentary record and Neoglacial history of Tide Lake, northwestern British Columbia,Can. J. Earth Sci. 29, 2383–2396.
Clarke, G. K. C.: 1982, Glacier outburst floods from ‘Hazard Lake’, Yukon Territory, and the problem of flood magnitude prediction,J. Glaciology 28, 3–21.
Collins, D. N.: 1984, Climatic variation and runoff from Alpine glaciers,Zeit. Gletscherkunde und Glazialgeologie 24, 127–145.
Costa, J. E.: 1988, Floods from dam failures, in V. R. Bakeret al. (eds),Flood Geomorphology, Wiley, New York, pp. 439–463.
Crandell, D. R.: 1969, Surficial geology of Mount Rainier National Park,U.S. Geol. Sur. Bull. 1288.
Crandell, D. R. and Fahnestock, R. K.: 1965, Rockfalls and avalanches from Little Tahoma Peak on Mount Rainier, Washington,U.S. Geol. Sur. Bull. 1221-A.
Davis, P. T.: 1988, Holocene glacier fluctuations in the American Cordillera,Quat. Sci. Rev. 7, 129–157.
Desloges, J. R., Jones, D. P., and Ricker, K. E.: 1989, Estimates of peak discharge from the drainage of ice-dammed Ape Lake, British Columbia, Canada,J. Glaciology 35, 349–354.
Driedger, C. L. and Fountain, A. G.: 1989, Glacier outburst floods at Mount Rainier, Washington State, U.S.A.,Ann. Glaciology 13, 51–55.
Driedger, C. L. and Kennard, P. M.: 1986, Ice volumes on Cascade volcanoes: Mount Rainier, Mount Hood, Three Sisters, and Mount Shasta,U.S. Geol. Sur. Prof. Pap. 1365.
Eisbacher, G. H., and Clague, J. J.: 1984, Destructive mass movements in high mountains - hazard and management, Geol. Sur. Canada Paper 84–16.
Ellsaesser, H. W.: 1990, Atmospheric carbon dioxide and the climatic record, in J. L. Betancourt, and A. N. MacKay (eds),Proc. Sixth Annual Pacific Climate (PACLIM) Workshop, Asilomar, California, 5–8 March 1989, California Department of Water Resources, Sacramento, California, pp. 5–18.
Ellsaesser, H. W., MacCracken, M. C., Walton, J. J., and Grotch, S. L.: 1986, Global climatic trends as revealed by the recorded data,Rev. Geophysics 24, 745–792.
Evans, S. G., and Clague, J. J.: 1993, Glacier-related hazards and climatic change,Proc. M.I.T. Symp. The World at Risk; Natural Hazards and Climatic Change, Cambridge, Mass., 14–16 January 1992, American Institute of Physics.
Fernández, P. C., Fornero, L., Maza, J., and Yañez, H.: 1991, Simulation of flood waves from outburst of glacier-dammed lake,J. Hydraulic Engineering 117, 43–53.
Gleick, P. H.: 1989, Climate change, hydrology, and water resources,Rev. Geophysics 27, 329–344.
Grove, J. M.: 1972, The incidence of landslides, avalanches, and floods in western Norway during the Little Ice Age,Arctic and Alpine Res. 4, 131–138.
Grove, J. M.: 1987, Glacier fluctuations and hazards,Geog. J. 153, 351–369.
Grove, J. M.: 1988,The Little Ice Age, Methuen, London (reprinted 1990, Routledge, New York).
Haeberli, W.: 1983, Frequency and characteristics of glacier floods in the Swiss Alps,Ann. Glaciology 4, 85–90.
Hansen, J., and Lebedeff, S.: 1988, Global surface air temperatures; update through 1987,Geophys. Res. Lett. 15, 323–326.
Heim, A.: 1895, Die Gletscherkatastrophe an der Altels am 11 September 1895,Neujahrsblatt der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Zürich 98, 1–63.
Hewitt, K.: 1989, Hazards to water resources development in high mountain regions: the Himalayan sources of the Indus, in Ö. Starosolszky and O. M. Melder (eds),Hydrology of Disasters (Proc. Technical Conference organized by the World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, November 1988), James and James, London, pp. 294–312.
Hopson, R. E.: 1960, Collier Glacier - a photographic record,Mazama 17(13), 1–12.
Houghton, J. T., Jenkins, G. J., Ephraums, J. J., (eds): 1990,Climate Change - The IPCC Scientific Assessment, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Hubley, R. A.: 1956, Glaciers of the Washington Cascade and Olympic Mountains; their present activity and its relation to local climatic trends,J. Glaciology 2, 669–674.
Hulsing, H.: 1981,The Breakout of Alaska's Lake George, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. [Available from Branch of Distribution, U.S. Geological Survey, Box 25286, Federal Center, Denver, CO, 80225.].
Ives, J. D.: 1986, Glacial lake outburst floods and risk engineering in the Himalaya, ICIMOD Occasional Paper No. 5, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Jackson, L. E., Hungr, O., Gardner, J. S., Mackay, C.: 1989, Cathedral Mountain debris flows, Canada,Bull. Int. Assoc. Engineering Geology 40, 35–54.
Jóhannesson, T., Raymond, C., and Waddington, E.: 1989, Time-scale for adjustment of glaciers to changes in mass balance,J. Glaciology 35, 355–369.
Jones, P. D., Wigley, T. M. L., and Wright, P. B.: 1986, Global temperature variations between 1861 and 1984,Nature 322, 430–434.
Laenen, A., Scott, K. M., Costa, J. E., and Orzol, L. L.: 1992, Modeling flood flows from a hypothetical failure of the glacial moraine impounding Carver Lake near Sisters, Oregon, U.S. Geol. Sur. Water Supply Paper 151, pp. 151–164.
Lamb, H. H.: 1977,Climate: Present, Past and Future, Vol. 2, Climatic History and the Future,
Lamb, H. H.: 1979, Climatic variation and changes in wind and ocean circulation: the Little Ice Age in the north Atlantic,Quat. Res. 11, 1–20.
Liestøl, O.: 1956, Glacier dammed lakes in Norway,Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift 15, 121–149.
Lliboutry, L.: 1971, Les catastrophes glaciaires,La Recherche 2, 417–425.
Lliboutry, L., Arnao, B. M., Pautre, A., and Schneider, B.: 1977, Glaciological problems set by the control of dangerous lakes in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru. I. Historical failures of morainic dams, their causes and prevention,J. Glaciology 18, 239–254.
Marcus, M. G.: 1960, Periodic drainage of glacier-dammed Tulsequah Lake, British Columbia,Geog. Rev. 50, 89–106.
Mathews, W. H.: 1965, Two self-dumping lakes in British Columbia,Geog. Rev. 55, 46–52.
Matthes, F. E.: 1939, Report on committee on glaciers,Trans. Amer. Geophys. Union 20, 518–523.
Meier, M. F.: 1984, Contribution of small glaciers to global sea level,Science 226, 1418–1421.
Meier, M. F., and Post, A.: 1969, What are glacier surges?,Can. J. Earth Sci. 6, 807–817.
Mills, H. L.: 1976, Estimated erosion rates on Mount Rainier, Washington,Geology 4, 401–406.
Mitchell, J. F. B.: 1989, The ‘greenhouse’ effect and climate change,Rev. Geophysics 27, 115–139.
Nolf, B.: 1966, Broken Top breaks: flood released by erosion of glacial moraine,The Ore Bin [Oregon State Department of Geology and Mineral Industries]28, 182–188.
Peña, H., and Klohn, W.: 1989, Non-meteorological flood disasters in Chile, in Ö. Starosolszky and O. M. Melder (eds),Hydrology of Disasters (Proc. Technical Conference organized by the World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, November 1988), James and James, London, pp. 243–258.
Plafker, G. and Erikson, G. E.: 1978, Nevados Huascarán avalanches, in B. Voight, (ed.),Rockslides and Avalanches Vol. 1, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 365–392.
Porter, S. C.: 1986, Pattern and forcing of northern hemisphere glacier variations during the last millennium,Quat. Res. 26, 27–48.
Porter, S. C. and Denton, G. H.: 1967, Chronology of neoglaciation in the North American Cordillera,Amer. J. Sci. 267, 177–210.
Porter, S. C. and Orombelli, G.: 1981, Alpine rockfall hazards,Amer. Scientist 69, 67–75.
Post, A. S.: 1963, Summary of recent changes in glaciers of Mount Rainier, in M. F. Meier (ed.),The Glaciers of Mount Rainier, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics Glacier Study Tour, 2–5 Sept. 1963, pp. 9–12.
Post, A. and Mayo, L. R.: 1971, Glacier dammed lakes and outburst floods in Alaska,U.S. Geol. Sur. Hydrological Investigations Atlas HA-455.
Richardson, D.: 1968, Glacier outburst floods in the Pacific Northwest, U.S. Geol. Sur. Prof. Paper 600-D, pp. 79–86.
Schlesinger, M. E. and Mitchell, J. F. B.: 1987, Climate model simulations of the equilibrium climatic response to increased carbon dioxide,Rev. Geophysics 25, 760–798.
Schneider, S. H.: 1989, The greenhouse effect: science and policy,Science 243, 771–780.
Sigurdsson, O. and Williams, R. S., 1991, Rockslides on the terminus of ‘Jökulárgilsjökull’, southern Iceland,Geografiska Annaler 73A, 129–140.
Spicer, R. C.: 1986, Glaciers in the Olympic Mountains, Washington: present distribution and recent variations, MS Thesis, University of Washington, Seattle.
Stone, K. H.: 1963, The annual emptying of Lake George, Alaska,Arctic 16, 26–40.
Sturm, M., Hall, D. K., Benson, C. S., and Field, W. O.: 1991, Non-climatic control of glacierterminus fluctuations in the Wrangell and Chugach Mountains, Alaska, U.S.A.,J. Glaciology 37, 348–356.
Tangborn, W.: 1980, Two models for estimating climate-glacier relationships in the North Cascades, Washington, U.S.A.,J. Glaciology 25, 3–21.
Tufnell, L.: 1984,Glacier Hazards, Topics in Applied Geography, Longman, New York.
Walder, J. S. and Driedger, C. L.: in press, Rapid geomorphic change and associated hazards caused by glacial outburst floods and debris flows at Mount Rainier, Washington, U.S. Geol. Sur. Wat. Res. Inv. 93-.
Wallén, C. C.: 1986, Impact of present century climate fluctuations in the northern hemisphere,Geografiska Annaler 68A, 245–278.
Warren, C. R. and Glaser, N. F.: 1992, Contrasting response of South Greenland glaciers to recent climatic change,Arctic Alpine Res. 24, 124–132.
Wigley, T. M. L. and Jones, P. D.: 1985, Influence of precipitation changes and direct CO2 effects on streamflow,Nature 314, 149–152.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
O'Connor, J.E., Costa, J.E. Geologic and hydrologic hazards in glacierized basins in North America resulting from 19th and 20th century global warming. Nat Hazards 8, 121–140 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00605437
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00605437