AK-03 ALASKA: AK-03 Columbia Glacier "Cliff" (Narrated)
James Balog, Tad Pfeffer, Extreme Ice Survey
A video from the Extreme Ice Survey in which Dr. Tad Pfeffer and photographer Jim Balog discuss the dynamics of the Columbia glacier's retreat in recent years through this time-lapse movie. Key point: glacier size is being reduced not just by glacial melting but due to a shift in glacial dynamics brought on by climate change.
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Should be used in conjunction with other time lapse videos and related background materials on glacier retreat as evidence of climate change.
Dr. Pfeffer and Jim Balog touch on the combination of human climate change pushing the glacier and natural dynamics taking over.
In addition to warming temperatures, topography plays a role in the rapid flow speeds at Columbia Glacier.
The Extreme Ice Survey is the most wide-ranging glacier study ever conducted using ground-based, real-time photography to document the rapid changes now occurring on Earth's glacial ice.
Comments from expert scientist:
Powerful time-lapse imagery of Columbia Glacier retreat and voice overlay with Tad Pfeffer and James Balog. Tad does a nice job explaining the link between the ice dynamics (which is responsible for the retreat) and changes in the climate (responsible for initiating the retreat).
Tidewater glaciers (of which Columbia is one) are very complex systems subject to internal feedbacks, such that a perturbation can set of a chain of feedbacks. That is essentially what has happened at Columbia, and although Tad/James do a nice job describing the climate-dynamics feedback, the resource is very short and someone without sufficient background/other knowledge might not understand the significance of this connection, and ONLY see the rapidly retreating glacier.
This resource would be most valuable/effective if used as part of a larger lesson plan incorporating other resources.
While there are other background materials on the EIS website, this and related narrated videos provide an overview of the time-lapse movies of Arctic glaciers retreating due to natural process coupled with human impacts on the climate system.
No pedagogy is provided.
This video is a short 1:20 minutes of time lapse photography/video, yet conveys key points quite powerfully nonetheless.
Video would have to be accompanied by lessons on glacier retreat and impact on climate change.
Other similar clips available on the [link http://vimeo.com/user1032518/videos 'Extreme Ice Survey Vimeo page'].
The Extreme Ice Survey Vimeo page houses all of the project's videos. Found at: [http://vimeo.com/user1032518/videos]. The project's website is: [http://extremeicesurvey.org/].
