Breane melted a lot in 2014

Norwegian Glacier Museum has carried out annual measurements of the frontal position of four glaciers. 2014 will be a bad year for glaciers.

For several years, we have been measuring changes in the length of glaciers in Fjærland. We started with the Store Supphellebreen glacier in 1992 and the Bøyabreen glacier in 2003. In recent years, these glaciers have shrunk, which has meant that we have started measuring two more glaciers. These are Vetle Supphellebreen, which we started measuring in 2011, and Haugabreen (in Jølster) last year.

Haugabreen October 2014. Photo: Pål Gran Kielland.

The results from the measurements all point in the same direction:

Store Supphellebreen -18 meters

Bøyabreen -65 meters

Vetle Supphellebreen -31 meters

Haugabreen -13 meters

While the measurements of Vetle Supphellebreen and Haugabreen are made directly on active glacier arms, the measurements of Store Supphellebreen and Bøyabreen are made on regenerated glaciers. In other words, glaciers that have been formed by landslides and avalanches from the glacier and the mountain above it. The regenerated glaciers can therefore vary somewhat depending on where the avalanche occurs. This year, little landslide activity has been observed, so the regenerated glaciers have not been able to accumulate anything special. In addition, the melting season has been warmer than normal and they are not particularly high above sea level; Bøyabreen 150 meters above sea level and Store Supphellebreen 60 meters above sea level. The result is that they are shrinking, especially Bøyabreen by 65 meters while Store Supphellebreen retreated 18 meters.

Bøyabreen October 2014. Photo: Pål Gran Kielland.

The fronts we measure on Haugabreen and Vetle Supphellebreen are higher in the mountains than the regenerated glaciers and should therefore be more robust against summer melting. Haugabreen (about 900 meters above sea level) retreated 13 meters, while Vetle Supphellebreen (about 750 meters above sea level) decreased by 31 meters. These figures show that the warm summer has also reduced the ice higher up in the mountains in 2014, something that has been observed in several places. For example, in the area above the start of the glacier fall (1200 meters above sea level) to Bøyabreen, old blue ice has melted at a height of 15-1600 meters.

The glacier fall of Bøyabreen in September 2014. Photo: Pål Gran Kielland.

The measurements are made for NVE (Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate).