Adventures in the Juneau Icefields

Matt Heavner

Matt Heavner will describe the Juneau Icefield in Southeast Alaska. Anyone who has visited the city of Juneau, Alaska has very likely visited the Mendenhall Glacier, which is just the very tip of the icefield. The Juneau icefield is the fifth-largest ice field in the Western Hemisphere extending through an area of 3,900 square kilometers.

The view from JIRP Camp 18 at the top of the Vaughan-Lewis icefall overlooks the
Gilkey Trench. The ogives show annual acceleration of the ice flow with lateral moraine.

With a primary focus on describing (with numerous photos) the natural beauty of the icefield, nunataks, and bordering temperature rainforest, the presentation will provide a historical overview of the Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP) - an annual research program that began in 1946 and continues to the present. Matt will also touch upon climate change monitoring and impacts, opportunities for participation in JIRP, and highlight a few adventures on the icefield (e.g. subglacial caving)

Traversing the Lemon Creek Glacier near JIRP Camp 17 for a GPS survey
to determine glacial velocity and mass balance.

Matt led the South East Alaska Monitoring Network for Science, Technology, Education and Research (SEAMONSTER) project, a NASA funded research effort on the Mendenhall and Lemon Creek glaciers from 2006-2010. In addition to being on the faculty at the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau from 2003-2010 in the Environmental Science program, Matt was also part of the Juneau Icefield Research Program faculty in 2009 and 2010. After joining Los Alamos National Lab in 2010, Matt has maintained instrumentation and interest in the Juneau icefield.Matt Heavner will talk about his work and adventures in the Juneau Icefields