Encore - Retreat of Mount Andromeda Glacier

March 10, 2018

Retreat of Mount Andromeda Glacier 2

Today and every Saturday Earth Science Picture of the Day invites you to rediscover favorites from the past. Saturday posts feature an EPOD that was chosen by viewers like you in our monthly Viewers' Choice polls. Join us as we look back at these intriguing and captivating images.

Photographer: Steve Williams, Ted Williams, Tyler Williams
Summary Author: Tyler Williams

June 2012 Viewer's Choice The photo triptych above shows the retreat of the Mount Andromeda glacier as viewed by three generations of photographers; my grandfather in 1966 (upper), my father in September 1989 (middle), and me in June 2012 (bottom). We were all standing on the Athabasca Glacier, part of the Columbia Icefield, in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada, looking towards this smaller cirque glacier on the north-facing slope of Mount Andromeda. The oval-shaped rock outcrop in the upper-left portion of the photos provides a nice reference point to look at the change in the glacier’s extent. The retreat of this glacier has clearly increased over the past several decades, a common sight with most alpine glaciers worldwide.

The bus at the bottom of the bottom photo is a snow coach; a specialized tour bus designed for taking passengers onto the Athabasca Glacier. It has low-pressure tires to protect the ice and can travel over incredibly steep gradients to get on and off the glacier. The woman in the middle photo is my mother (Fran Williams). 

Photo Details: specs (2012); Model: Canon Powershot A590 IS camera; 8mm focal length; f/4 aperture; 1/1000 sec. exposure time; ISO-80. Photos were re-sized and cropped using Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

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