Almost a century ago, scientists and mountaineers in Oregon observed the retreat of Oregon’s glaciers and raised alarm over the potential for an ice-free Oregon in the not too distant future. That future has now arrived. The recently founded Oregon Glaciers Institute (OGI) is monitoring changes in Oregon’s endangered glaciers with the goal of projecting their viability. OGI recently concluded a state-wide survey of how many glaciers remain in Oregon with an estimate of how many existed more than 60 years ago when the last such census was conducted. In this presentation, we will look at the implications of these findings and why such changes are occurring (including Oregon’s geology and climate change), with a final note on how one can help in preserving Oregon’s vanishing glaciers.
Dr. Anders Eskil Carlson, President of Oregon Glaciers Institute
Dr. Anders Carlson fell in love with glaciers as an undergraduate student while conducting research at Matanuska Glacier in Alaska. After receiving his B.A. in Geology and German from Augustana College, IL, he earned a M.S. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Ph.D. at Oregon State University in glacial geology. Following a postdoc at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MA, he was a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and then Oregon State University before co-founding the Oregon Glaciers Institute. Anders has studied glacier-climate change for 20+ years in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Svalbard, Scandinavia, Patagonia and Antarctica, with a new focus on glacier changes in the Pacific Northwest.