The glaciers' front position changes in 2015
Norwegian Glacier Museum has carried out the annual front position measurements on several glaciers in the surrounding area.
Bøyabreen and Store Supphellebreen glaciers have been part of the measurement program since 2003 and 1992 respectively. We have carried out the measurements on the regenerated parts of the glaciers that lie at the foot of the mountain and beneath the icefall. In recent years, the glaciers have been difficult to measure as avalanches from ice and snow control how these masses change, and we do not always find blue ice when we measure them. In addition, glaciers are melting due to increased average temperatures. It has not been possible to measure Bøyabreen and Store Supphellebreen glaciers accurately this year, which means that we do not get a figure for the changes in front position. This is a problem we have been waiting for in recent years and it now looks like we will have to end the measurement series.
Bøyabreen in Fjærland in October 2015 (photo: Pål Gran Kielland).
It is not only the glaciers in Fjærland that are difficult to measure. Senior engineer at NVE, Hallgeir Elvehøy, had this to say about the status of the measurements: "It's a shame to interrupt the measurement series, but if the measurements are not representative of glacier development, there is no other advice. We are considering terminating Briksdalsbreen...". For Briksdalsbreen, there is a measurement series dating back to 1901 that is now in danger of also having to be discontinued.
Briksdalsbreen in autumn 2013 seen from the top of Oldeskaret (Photo: Pål Gran Kielland).
Fortunately, we have two other glaciers that we can still measure the front position of. These are Vetle Supphellebreen and Haugabreen glaciers. Here we measure directly on the blue ice in the glacier fronts. Vetle Supphellebreen advanced 8 meters and since we started measuring the glacier in 2011, it has retreated a total of 14 meters. We can't draw conclusions about the development of the glacier from year to year, since glaciers have a slower reaction time in relation to climate, but the results since 2011 fit in with the trend of a warming climate and shrinking glaciers over time. We actually have good evidence of this trend, since there are old measurements with a fairly long series of measurements from 1899 to 1944 where the glacier retreated more than 400 meters. We also found an old image from 1884 where you can clearly see that there were larger ice masses in the past, which shows that the climate has become warmer in modern times.
Vetle Supphellebreen glacier in 1884 (photo: Steensrup, K.J.D.) and 2015 (photo: Pål Gran Kielland).
Measurements of the front of the Haugabreen glacier show a retreat of 7 meters in 2015. We only have two years of measurements, but the figures show that the glacier has melted a total of 20 meters. Here too, we cannot draw conclusions about the development of the glacier with such a short series of measurements, but we can look back in time as there are actually measurements of Haugabreen dating back to the period 1933 - 1940. It was Anders Briksdal who measured the glacier, and he recorded that it melted 237 meters during those years. The fixed point he measured the distance to the glacier from was a cairn on a large rock on the east side of the river in Haugadalen valley. This was natural since he came across Oldeskaret from Briksdalen. He described, among other things, that the lower part of the glacier tongue was completely smooth, which could indicate that the glacier tongue was quite thin and in decline. Based on these old measurements, the edge of the glacier in 1939 was probably located on the flats in Haugadalen valley, before the mountain steepens towards today's glacier front.
Haugabreen in the 1930s (photo: NGU) and in 2012 (photo: Pål Gran Kielland).