Once Bishop Glacier...Now Bishop Lake
Retreating Ice, Bishop Glacier, BC 1985-2017 (credit: Landsat and the AGU)
Bishop Glacier in British Columbia is turning into a lake having lost nearly 2 miles of its ice from glacial melting. According to the American Geophysical Union (the AGU), a rapidly expanding lake has emerged where ice used to be. Using 32 years of Landsat imagery, re-photography of the glacier shows Bishop Glacier and related ice-fields. Red arrows represent the 1985 glacier's terminus; yellow the 2017 situation; purple dots designate the snow lines of three glaciers, Bishop (B), Ring (R), and Lillooet (L).
"In 2017 the Bishop Glacier 'proto-lake' is ~2.5 miles long with a glacier retreat of nearly 10,000 feet in 32 years. Ring Glacier has retreated 2600 feet from Bishop Glacier. The lake is relatively free of icebergs in 2017, suggesting a reduced calving rate in recent years."
Also, clearly visible, is the growth of shrub and forest vegetation (green) on newly exposed landscapes once covered by ice. A perspective on Canada's glaciers, particularly in British Columbia, experiencing fapid decline due to climate change, is provided in a video report. WHB