A 3-D look at the recent retreat on the Quelccaya Ice Cap, Peru

I have been simultaneously conducting research on both the Quelccaya Ice Cap in the high Peruvian Andes, and the Greenland Ice Sheet. The Quelccaya project has been funded by a number of grants over the years, most recently a through the CIRES Innovative Research Program (co-authored with Anton Seimon). The Greenland project has been funded by grants from NASA and NSF.

This data set is presently unpublished, so please contact Todd before using this image.

The Peru project has yielded exciting new insights into the climatology, glaciology, and impending social and economic problems related to water scarcity. Accordingly, my passion for the Peruvian research has exploded and I plan to make it the primary focus of my dissertation. Already, I have developed new techniques to delineate ice cap boundaries from satellite imagery (Albert, 2002), and created a detailed 40 year history of the ice extent (in preparation).

Check out this 3-d view. It’s a 2.4MB file, so be patient while it loads. You can view from any side. Changes in ice extent on the tropical Quelccaya Ice Cap, Peru, from 1975 to 1998. This data set is presently unpublished, so please contact Todd before using this image.

Along with the changes in climate and glacier extent, Peru is currently experience a boom in water availability which is driving their agriculturally-based economy, their hydroelectric production, and, hence, their population. This growing population is becoming increasingly dependent on melt-water runoff, a resource that is temporarily abundant, but quickly depleting. Therefore, my project, while quite interesting on its own, becomes critically important when taken in a larger geographical and economic context. Colleagues of mine from around the world are currently conducting other facets of this research in an collaborative attempt to mitigate impeding economic disaster in Peru. The entire project, however, hinges on a greater understanding of the glaciers in the Andes and their complex relationships with the climate.

Related posts:

1. Global Warming presentation
2. Science Links
3. Has Global Warming stopped? Not even close.