Study: Olympic glaciers shrinking, 1 now gone
An Olympic National Park scientist says the park’s glaciers have shrunk by an average of 15 percent since the 1980s, with one completely disappearing.
The Peninsula Daily News reports that the research found that Ferry Glacier, one of the park’s 60 largest in 1982, disappeared from its rocky niche in the Bailey Range.
Olympic National Park physical scientist Bill Baccus says another glacier, Lillian, has “virtually disappeared.”
Baccus has been studying the park’s 311 glaciers in detail since 2010. He says there are more glaciers now because larger ones have broken up. In 1982, researchers found 266 glaciers.
The most recent study found that Blue Glacier – the largest – has lost 18 percent of its mass since 1982.
He says the average air temperature in the Pacific Northwest has gone up 3 degrees Fahrenheit since 1920.
The Associated Press
