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Jökulhlaups at Tulsequah Glacier, northwestern British Columbia, Canada

BC Ministry of Forests, Northern Interior Forest Region, 1011 4th Avenue, Prince George, BC V2L 3H9, Canada; marten.geertsema{at}gems3.gov.bc.ca

John J. Clague

Department of Earth Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC V5A ISó, Canada

Jokulhlaups from lakes dammed by Tulsequah Glacier in northwestern British Columbia have occurred regularly since the early twentieth century. The floods commenced after decades of downwasting and retreat of the glacier from its Holocene maximum position, which it achieved in the nineteenth century. Hydrometric data and other records are used to reconstruct the times and peak discharges of floods from two glacier-dammed lakes. Tulsequah Lake formed in the early 1900s when a tributary glacier separated from Tulsequah Glacier, creating an ice-free embayment between the two. The lake grew rapidly in surface area and volume in the first half of the twentieth century, but later, with continued glacier retreat, it decreased in size. The first jokulhlaups from Tulsequah Lake were the largest. Peak and total discharges decreased as the lake became smaller. Today, Tulsequah Lake is small, and it will disappear completely if Tulsequah Glacier retreats any further. A second lake (Lake No Lake), however, has formed and grown in size as Tulsequah Lake has diminished. Lake No Lake developed from a subglacial water body in a tributary valley, 7 km upglacier from Tulsequah Lake. Like Tulsequah Lake, Lake No Lake rapidly grew in area and volume during its youth, and in the 1 970s it began to generate its own jokulhlaups. Lake No Lake appears to be following the same evolutionary path as Tulsequah Lake-its volume is now decreasing due to downwasting of Tulsequah Glacier, and its jokulhlaups are beginning to diminish. As Tulsequah Glacier continues to shrink in response to climatic warming, additional glacier-dammed lakes may form, renewing the cycle of outburst flood activity. Such behaviour can be expected in other high mountains because most alpine glaciers are retreating in response to global warming.

Key Words: Jokulhlaup • ice-dammed lake • glacier retreat • flood hazard • climate change • Tulsequah Glacier • British Columbia • Canada

The Holocene, Vol. 15, No. 2, 310-316 (2005)
DOI: 10.1191/0959683605hl812rr


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