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Mendenhall Glacier Lake Outburst Flood
-"releases about 37 million cubic meters of water, enough to fill almost 15,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools."
By Eran Hood, Associate Professor of Enviornmental Science, Department Chair
These photos were taken during a glacier lake outburst flood from the Mendenhall Glacier in July, 2011. The flood originated in Suicide Basin approximately 2 miles up the Mendenhall Glacier on the east side. The basin has bedrock walls on three sides and is closed off by the main stem of the Mendenhall Glacier. Water built up in the basin underneath a sheet of ice and was released over a 4 day period (July 19-22) when the ice dam was breached by a drainage channel that connected the basin to the main sub-glacial drainage channel under the Mendenhall. The outburst from Suicide Basin released about 37 million cubic meters of water, which is enough to fill almost 15,000 Olympic sized swimming pools. The flood caused discharge on the Mendenhall River to increase from 2,800 cubic feet per second (cfs) to more than 16,000 cfs and raised the level of Mendenhall Lake by 5.5 feet.
UAS Environmental Science faculty Eran Hood flew onto the Mendenhall Glacier with representatives from the National Weather Service and the City of Juneau Emergency Management Team to find the source of the flood, assess the potential for further increased flows in the Mendenhall River, and survey the flooding impacts along the river. The following aerial photos show Suicide Basin after it had drained out and also the downstream flooding along the Mendenhall River.
Photos taken July 19-22, 2011.