Theres Hoffellsjkull, a glacier pivotal to the Icelandic history of glaciology and demonstrative of the connections between Icelanders and ice; Flajkull, which has historically released many devastating glacier floods on the community; Heinabergsjkull, a chimera glacier that is receding in a much less visible way and has propelled diverse interpretations of glacier change; Sklafellsjkull, a glacier that embodies different perceptions of livingness to the people who live near it; and Breiamerkurjkull, a glacier not visible from Hfn but that, through tourism, has had profound economic impacts on the village and region. How many glaciers have disappeared in the last 50 years? ice stream Video shows President Joe Biden recalling an alien encounter. Glacier National Park has 37 named glaciers and they are one of the reasons people come to Glacier each year. What is another name for continental glaciers? SWW https://science2017.globalchange.gov. Medial Moraines form where two trunks of the glacier merge. doi:10.7930/J0J964J6. Ahntastic Adventures in Silicon Valley It was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. We turned to research and climate scientists to help us figure out if its accurate. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. https://alaska.usgs.gov/products/data.php?dataid=79, Download related technical information PDF, http://nsidc.org/data/glacier_photo/index.html, A Closer Look: Glaciers in Glacier National Park, Community Connection: Ice Breakup in Three Alaskan Rivers, On average, glaciers worldwide have been losing mass since at least the 1970s (see Figure 1), which in turn has contributed to observed changes in sea level (see the. According to the Randolph Glacier Inventory, Colgan said, there are 197,654 glaciers that are at least 1 hectare, or 0.01 square kilometers. Zemp, M., I. Grtner-Roer, S.U. In context, that means that by 2100 AD, about half of all the Worlds glaciers will be gone unless strong mitigation strategies are employed. If all the ice covering Antarctica , Greenland, and in mountain glaciers around the world were to melt, sea level would rise about 70 meters (230 feet). 2020. After 1990, . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110, 1374513750, (2013). However, this is a slightly arbitrary quantity, as it depends on the quality of the digital elevation model used, mapping resolution, and the minimum-area threshold used. Read more about me at www.antarcticglaciers.org/bethan-davies. What are the different types of glaciers in the world? Boulder, Colorado: National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology. Just as no two people in the world are ever the same, neither are two glaciers. Sources: Post, 1958;2Nolan, 20033Web update: August2016. 2020. Reston, VA 20192 Glaciers dominate eustatic sea-level rise in the 21st Century. The single story of glaciers has not been, and is not today, representative of the entirety of the life of a glacier, a life that includes individuals, communities, culture, scale, negative and positive impacts, geography, place. The USGS defines them "according to the commonly accepted guidelines in which a body of ice has an area of at least 0.1 kilometers squared, or about 25 acres.". Snow and Ice, Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS), NASA Goddard Space How many waterfalls are in the Rocky Mountains? "We just dont have the snapshots from space in 1948," Colgan said. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Learn how your comment data is processed. What percent of freshwater is in glaciers? The inventories should include glacier attributes, such as area, length, slope, aspect, terminal environment (calving into the sea or lake, or terminating on dry land), elevation, and glacier classification. That is because there was no satellite imagery at. As settlements, farming, and tourism extend toward the edges of glaciated regions, melting glaciers and the avalanches and floods that often accompany rapid melt increasingly threaten lives and infrastructure in mountain regions. 4.0, November 2019). The World Glacier Monitoring Service compiled data for Figure 1, based on measurements collected by a variety of organizations around the world. glacier recession Today, we have over 400,000 glaciers and ice caps scattered across Earth, over 5.8 million square miles of ice. Freshwater runoff from glaciers also influences ocean ecosystems. Data sources: USGS, 20207Web update: April 2021, Key Points | Background | About the Indicator | About the Data | Technical Documentation. "Everywhere you look, you see massive change.". This means that we can conduct large meta-analyses of the entire dataset. Rainier had ceased to shrink and were growing in ice thickness. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window), Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window), Yes, glaciers are disappearing but thats far from their only story. Although the GLIMS project is still in a formative stage, the yearly satellite data being compiled and stored with historical data from the last three to five decades will enable scientists to track worldwide glacier changes and the effects of such change on surrounding communities and habitats. Climate change 2013: The physical science basis. (GLIMS, Global Land Ice Measurement from Space, 2010). His research reveals that over 509 small glaciers disappeared in the past 50 years and . By mapping glaciers from satellite images, we can not only inventory the Worlds glaciers, we can also analyse their rates of change and dynamic behaviour. As geophysicist Henry Pollack says, Natures best thermometer, perhaps its most sensitive and unambiguous indicator of climate change, is ice Ice asks no questions, presents no arguments, reads no newspapers, listens to no debates. Nussbaumer, F. Hsler, H. Machguth, N. Mlg, F. Paul, and M. Hoelzle, (eds.). The four U.S. referenceglaciers have shown an overall decline in mass balance since the 1950s and 1960s and an accelerated rate of decline in recent years (see Figure 2). Glaciers in Antarctica are currently contributing little to global sea level rise. How likely, and how quickly, will this happen? Which glacier was the largest during the last ice age? Grant and Stanton glaciers are in neighboring Flathead National Forest. St. Petersburg, FL How many mountains are there in Antarctica? He added that, today, many of the parks glaciers were noticeably thinner than they were in the past.. Accessed December 2020. https://alaska.usgs.gov/products/data.php?dataid=79. Although these adjacent glaciers come from the same ice cap, they have different surface character because they are flowing at different rates. The total area covered by glaciers was 1.6 km (0.62 miles) in 1900; however. In Iceland, where Ive lived and worked for nine years, the glaciers are noticeably receding, but this does not necessarily mean theyre melting. Excerpted from the new book The Secret Lives of Glaciers by M Jackson. Theyre a type of natural reservoir with a temper, in some cases. How big does a glacier have to be to be a glacier? 1. This figure shows the cumulative mass balance of the three U.S. Geological Survey "benchmark" glaciers since measurements began in the 1950s or 1960s. Mountain glaciers. 9 Paul, F. et al. Landsat images can also be used to map transient snow lines, the snowline at the end of the summer, which can be a proxy for the equilibrium line altitude11. The glacier formed by accumulating ice upward, becoming thicker. "Today, only 130,000 remain.". Contour lines are approximate. UK Gem Glacier is the smallest named glacier in Glacier National Park (U.S.). Iceland Today, only 130,000 remain. doi:10.5066/F7HD7SRF. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Sarvent Glacier, Cowlitz Chimneys. So Ill tell you, there are no single stories of glaciers. water resource At the other end of the scale, New Zealand has only 1160 km2 of ice. The research about glaciers tells us about their physics and chemistry, but it doesnt tell us what happens to people as they melt. A negative mass balance indicates that a glacier has lost ice or snow. For consistency, measurements are in meters of water equivalent, which represent changes in the average thickness of a glacier. The Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) programme defines guidelines and rules for conducting glacier inventories3-10. There are about 198,000 to 200,000 glaciers in the world. 6. GLIMS also compile all the mapped glacier outlines as ESRI shapefiles, which are freely downloadable by anyone from their website. He said in an email that the number 130,000 probably comes from the World Glacier Inventory, which is a snapshot of the glacier distribution in the second half of the 20th century. Glaciers serve as a natural regulator of regional water supplies, said Kargel. How much will they raise sea levels on full melting? Some glaciers have a nasty habit of storing up large amounts of water and then releasing it suddenly in a massive melt or calving episode, which may involve floods, landslides, or avalanches, said Kargel. Using aerial and satellite imagery, researchers traced the footprints of 39 named glaciers in the park and surrounding national forest. In comparison, the Hubbard Glacier has advanced 3 miles (5 km) in the last 48 years. sea ice USGCRP (U.S. Most analysts use a minimum area threshold of 0.1 km2; they will not map anything smaller than this due to difficulties in distinguishing between glaciers and snowpacks. Rather, the important questions center on how, and to what effect. Jim White, a climate scientist and interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, said a better measure of glacier change is ice volume, because that translates to potential sea level rise if that ice melts. Unlike Agassiz, the smallest glacier in the park appropriately named Gem has not ceded much ground over the past 50 years. 2013. stated on February 22, 2023 a Facebook post: stated on February 27, 2023 a Facebook post: stated on February 15, 2023 a Facebook post: stated on February 25, 2023 an Instagram post: stated on February 26, 2023 an Instagram post: stated on February 20, 2023 a Facebook post: stated on February 22, 2023 an Instagram post: stated on February 21, 2023 an Instagram post: stated on February 17, 2023 an Instagram post: stated on February 18, 2023 a Facebook post: stated on March 3, 2023 in a Conservative Political Action Conference speech: stated on February 19, 2023 in a Facebook post: stated on February 24, 2023 in an Instagram post: stated on March 2, 2023 in a speech at CPAC: stated on February 25, 2023 in a Facebook post: stated on February 22, 2023 in a Facebook post: stated on February 26, 2023 in an Instagram post: stated on February 27, 2023 in a Facebook post: All Rights Reserved Poynter Institute 2020, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, According to the Randolph Glacier Inventory, "The laws governing Agenda 2030 land development allows the government to seize polluted lands and move their residents to smart cities., a 2017 Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme study, "The Randolph Inventory: a globally complete inventory of glaciers,", "Twentieth-century contribution to sea-level rise from uncharted glaciers,", "Retreat of glaciers in Glacier National Park,", "Argentine scientist indicted over design of glacier inventory,", "Adapting to sea level rise in Miami-Dade County, Florida,", "Obama just explained what a gigaton is. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS In 1850, there were about 150 documented glaciers in this area of the Rocky Mountains. . In the United States, glaciers can be found in the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, the Cascades, and throughout Alaska. Sea level rise How many glaciers are there today? From 1980 onwards, the glacier has been fast receding. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. As glaciologist Helgi Bjrnsson wrote, Nowhere in Iceland has the proximity and relationship between man and glacier and its rivers been so intimate and difficult than along the coastline south of Vatnajkull. A local man told me, My father used to sweep the glacier from his door each morning.. Glaciers are profoundly entangled with people, with individual and community lifeways and glaciers influence human societies as much as human societies influence glaciers. What types of glaciers are there? Figure 2 shows trends for four of these reference glaciers that are located in the United States. When President Taft created Glacier National Park in 1910, it was home to an estimated 150 glaciers. Where there are glaciers, there are people (even in Antarctica! copyright 2003-2023 Homework.Study.com. Web update: August 2016. data measured only coverage area, but a coming study by Dr. Fagres team will measure the glaciers volume. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Thanks for such a great post and photos. Altogether, the worlds small glaciers are adding roughly the same amount of water to the oceans per year as the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica combined. IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). United States, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive Reston, VA 20192, Region 2: South Atlantic-Gulf (Includes Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), Region 12: Pacific Islands (American Samoa, Hawaii, Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands). Cumulative Mass Balance of Three U.S. Glaciers, 1958-2014. how many glaciers were there in 1948 how many glaciers were there in 1948. google mountain view charge cash app; wect news bladen county; how many glaciers were there in 1948; how many glaciers were there in 1948. danville jail mugshots; marlin 1898 stock; 39 miles hunan impression . The data include scientific information for the 37 named glaciers in Glacier National Park and two glaciers on U.S. Forest Service land. Their tweet reads: The day Al Gore was born there was 130,000 glaciers. Satellite imagery can help reveal short- or long-term trends in glacier activity that could impact water supplies or cause glacial hazards. Agassiz glacier, pictured above, has lost more ground than any other glacier in the park: over 200 acres. The figure below, from NASA, shows the glacier extent in 1986. Multispectral imaging contributions to global land ice measurements from space. and Portland State University. How many glaciers are there in the World? The region with the most ice is the Antarctic and Subantarctic, with 132,900 km2, closely followed by Arctic Canada North (104,900 km2). (Image by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory; based on data provided by the ASTER Science Team; glacier retreat boundaries courtesy the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center). introductory From the RGI, we can learn that there are 198,000 glaciers in the World. A glacier is a mass of ice so big that it flows under its own weight. Its kind of like a bank accountwhen youve withdrawn all the water, there isnt any more, said Kargel. 16 Gardner, A. S. et al. 6 Raup, B. et al. It ensures that inventories carried out in different places by different people are comparable. How many glaciers were there in 1900? Hibbard, D.J. by the year 2000 only about 25%, or 0.4 km (0.15 miles), remained. I have been privileged to get to know many glaciers across this planet, to sit down and listen to diverse interpretations, stories and knowledges of glaciers told from hundreds of perspectives by people who live near and far from ice. Hornafjrur is a thin strip of coastal land stretching along the southern belly of the island, beset by wind, low clouds, thick fog, occasional trees contorted at their bases, skittish reindeer and intermittent Arctic foxes, vibrating calls from the common snipe and continuously shifting intensities of light. About three-quarters of the Earths fresh water is held in ice sheets and mountain glaciers, so recognizing glacial changes is crucial to monitoring water supplies. Thanks for a very detailed and informative paper. An official website of the United States government. Each glacier is exceptionally diverse, each fluctuating in multitudes of ways to local, regional and global environmental dynamics. Note the lack of floating ice and the abundant vegetation on many slopes throughout the photograph. Glaciers are very sensitive to changes in the atmosphere, so they're great indicators of climactic change. In 1950, Kermit B. Bengston, currently a graduate student at the University of Washington, found that the Coleman Glacier on Mt. Read more about our fact-checking work here. research ecologist who led the study. http://nsidc.org/data/glacier_photo/index.html. That technology did not exist in 1950. Wikipedia lists over 500 of named glaciers. patagonia The cold runoff from glaciers also affects downstream water temperatures. There are two main types of glaciers: continental glaciers and alpine glaciers. 4 Rau, F. et al. 3 (20162017). All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. who wins student body president riverdale. How many cinder cone volcanoes are there in the world? Right: This photo illustrates outlet glaciers with different flow rates in the inner Royal Society Fiord, Northeast Baffin Island, Canada. The retreat of glaciers is significant in Montana because of the impact shrinking glaciers can have on tourism, as well as being a visual indicator of mountain ecosystem change in the northern Rocky Mountains. Both processes are going on: thinning and contracting, he said. What kind of glaciers are found in Montana? The Cryosphere Discussions 5, 1365-1382, (2011). But by 2015, there were 26 remaining glaciers larger than 25 acres. sedimentology How much of Alaska is covered by glaciers? An official website of the United States government. At higher elevations, glaciers accumulate snow, which eventually becomes compressed into ice. Below this size the ice is less likely to move and is not considered a glacier. "On that question, the answer is very clear glaciers are losing mass. 4. The recently published U.S.G.S. And, USGS notes, "worldwide glacial glacier recession is well documented. Last year, 2.9 million visitors came to the park. How much ice is melting each year in Antarctica? But as the worlds glaciers continue to melt and shrink, over time there will be less water to sustain the communities that have come to depend on that meltwater. Digital IDs were given to residents in East Palestine, Ohio, to track long term health problems like difficulty breathing before the Feb. 3 train derailment. After the end of the Little Ice Age, glaciers across the Western United States, Canada and Europe lost ice as temperatures rebounded. You can see the terminus receding north up the bay. Romain Hugonnet, a research assistant and PhD student at the Laboratory of Space Geophysical and Oceanographic Studies (LEGOS), University of Toulouse, said a more accurate climate change indicator would be a measurement of the surface or volume of glaciers. There are approximately 186 named glaciers in Washington according to the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). Receding and wasting glaciers are a telltale sign of global climate change, said Jeff Kargel, head of the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) Coordination Center at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in Flagstaff, Arizona. 2013. he asked. This indicator is based on long-term monitoring data collected at selected glaciers around the world. Vargo pointed to a 2015 paper from the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) (here), which indicated that glacial mass loss rates are "without precedent according to observations since 1850. How many miles is the Antarctica Ice Shelf? But what qualifies as a glacier depends on who you ask. This figure shows the cumulative mass balance of four U.S. reference glaciers since measurements began in the 1950s or 1960s. Glaciers are profoundly entangled with people, and glaciers influence human societies as much as human societies influence glaciers. Radi et al., 2014, use the RGI to estimate global glacier volume at 405 mm sea-level equivalent (SLE) (146,949 Gt or 163,276 km3 ice)14. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. (Image by Douglas Hodgson, Copyright Terrain Sciences Division, Geological Survey of Canada), For more information: 7 How big does a glacier have to be to be a glacier? Post, A. Just as no two people in the world are ever the same, neither are two glaciers. Years ago, Canadian anthropologist Julie Cruikshank asked, after decades researching indigenous people and glaciers in Alaska and Western Canada, if glaciers were good to think with.. 14 Radi, V. et al. Lambert Glacier How to Market Your Business with Webinars? study skills Where there are glaciers, there are people (even in Antarctica! Maps of the glaciers in 1968surveyed by airplane by the USGScounted 83 ice-and-snow bodies with areas greater than 0.1 square kilometers. Studies by Marzeion (here) and Vargo (here) suggest that glacier loss is largely caused by human activity affecting the climate system. Instead, theyre known more for their single association with climate change. Ive returned to glaciers Ive researched for years to find them unrecognizable and withered, and this breaks me. (You can see photos showing how the Shepard Glacier in the park has changed from 1913 to 2005.). These statements circulated online between late October and early November and coincided with the start of COP26, the United Nations climate change summit. National Snow and Ice Data Center DAAC, Land It doesnt tell us what happens to people as glaciers melt. ice flow Pine-Island Conference Grinstead, 2013, used a different approach to reach a lower estimate of 350 70 mm SLE15. But they have been shrinking rapidly since the late 1800s, when North America emerged from the Little Ice Age, a period of regionally colder, snowier weather that lasted for roughly 400 years. Remote sensing and GIS technology in the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) Project. Zurich, Switzerland: World Glacier Monitoring Service. A glacier is a body of snow and ice thats big enough in size and mass to move under its own weight, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. While current melting trends cant be slowed or reversed, the information collected through the GLIMS project will enable researchers to better understand the relationship between climate and glaciers, and to better predict areas of future glacier changes. But this is the single conclusion to the single story people suffer. Estimates of global glacier volume use various methods of volume-area scaling. Social media users disputing climate change have said there are the same number of glaciers on Earth in 2021 as the day in 1948 that former U.S. vice president Al Gore was born. Repeat photographs show it losing volume over time, Dr. Fagre said. Lambert Glacier is the largest and fastest-moving glacier in the world. Copyright 2023 AntarcticGlaciers.org | Creative Commons License | Facebook | Twitter | Cookies and Privacy | Links | Built by senktec.com. Conversely, during cold, rainy seasons, glaciers produce less meltwater. How many volcanoes have erupted in Iceland? Some glacier measurements have not yet been finalized for the last few years, hence the smaller number of sites. Nolan, M. 2003. I found that Icelanders often interpreted glacier change first through the lens of their own cultural stories about them. Thwaites Glacier Generation after generation of Icelanders have continuously lived there since the Settlement of Iceland, with isolated families eking out marginal livelihoods farming, harvesting fish from the sea and negotiating the regions oscillating glaciers. Especially in Iceland. The GLIMS team uses high-resolution satellite images from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument and the Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), archived at the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC), to track the size and movement of glaciers. This indicator does not include the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, although two decades of satellite data suggest that these ice sheets are also experiencing a net loss of ice.8 Continued satellite data collection will allow scientists to evaluate long-term trends in the future. dating The U.S. Geological Survey Benchmark Glacier Program provided the data for the four glaciers inFigure 2. (Image courtesy of U.S. Navy) Retreat of southeastern Alaska's Muir Glacier between August 1941 and August 2004. These glaciers were located at 37 35N., longitude 105 28W. Glacier changes, especially recent melting, can affect agriculture, drinking water supplies, hydroelectric power, transportation, tourism, coastlines, and ecological habitats, he added. Most were still there when the national park was established in 1910. In 1966 it was estimated that there were about 370 glaciers in New Zealand. APIS USGS (U.S. Geological Survey). Sperry Glacier is the park's most studied glacier. A glacier is a large mass of snow and ice that has accumulated over many years and is present year-round. The researchers also compare the satellite images with historical maps and information to determine a glaciers advance or retreat over the past few decades. How many glaciers are there in Switzerland? They increase in size with annual snowfall, and then melt a little in warmer months. 8. This indicator examines the balance between snow accumulation and melting in glaciers, and it describes how glaciers in the United States and around the world have changed over time. Even glaciers within the same region can react differently to environmental changes. We know that glacier loss is largely due to warmer temperatures, which are being driven by increases in greenhouse gases, Vargo said. And Ive come to realize its vital we begin understanding these deep connections between people and ice. 5 Raup, B. et al. (GLIMS, Global Land Ice Measurements from Space, NSIDC, 2010). They found that 10 had lost more than half their area over. Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy. The parks most visited glacier, Grinnell, lost 45 percent of its footprint more than 100 acres from 1966 to 2015. Working Group I contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. I have traveled in and out of Iceland and the municipality of Hornafjrur for over nine years working for National Geographic Expeditions, and in 2015 to 2016 I lived in the muncipalitys main village of Hfn for a year to research people and ice while finishing my doctorate degree. 1800 I Street NW Glaciers are. Despite their comparatively small area, glaciers contribute significantly to global sea level rise1. How much ice have we lost since Al Gore was born? 1958. resource Sizing Up the Earth's Glaciers. The flowing sheets of ice scattered throughout the Montana park shrank by more than a third between 1966 and 2015, according to new data from the United States Geological Survey and Portland State University in Oregon. They are struggling to make sense of the individual profit theyre making from glacier recession, of how they can learn to navigate short-term financial benefit in the face of a much larger phenomenon of change. Official websites use .gov Glaciological applications with Landsat-7 imagery: Early assessments. Now it comes only up to your shins.. 11 Pelto, M. Utility of late summer transient snowline migration rate on Taku Glacier, Alaska. Global glacier change bulletin no. Maycock, (eds.). Our experts can answer your tough homework and study questions. The data for Glacier National Parks named glaciers are available at the USGS ScienceBase website. Tracking these small alpine glaciers has been instrumental in describing climate change effects on Glacier National Park to park management and the public, said Lisa McKeon, USGS scientist who has been documenting glacier change since 1997. I mapped 195 distinct glaciers on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula alone, including outlet glaciers that drain the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet and separate mountain glaciers and ice caps. And in the Alps, glaciers are retreating and disappearing every year, much to the dismay of mountain climbers, tourist agencies, and environmental researchers. Most of those glaciers were still there when the park was established in 1910. 727-821-9494. stated on March 11, 2019 in a Facebook post: "The day Al Gore was born, there were 130,000 glaciers on earth. Now that we have a complete dataset on global glacier outlines, we can use these data to understand glacier mass balance and potential contributions to sea level rise. Trends for the four U.S. referenceglaciers are consistent with the retreat of glaciers observed throughout the western United States, Alaska, and other parts of the world. With binoculars and a map you can get a good view of Sperry Glacier's headwall from the Hidden Lake Overlook. 5. Jackson is the recipient of many grants and awards, including three US Fulbright grants and a US Fulbright Ambassadorship, and currently serves as an Arctic Expert for the National Geographic Society. Thats about a third of all the water in Lake Erie.