Jökulhlaup-YEAR 2
Suicide Basin has now filled and emptied for two years in a row, raising water levels on Mendenhall River and Mendenhall Lake.
Eran Hood, UAS Associate
Professor of Environmental Science said it is no fluke that this previously
unusual event has now happened in two consecutive summers. “There’s pretty good reason to believe
that every single year, that basin’s going to fill up,” Hood said. “Jökulhlaup”
is the Icelandic term for the drainage event, also known as a “glacier dammed
outburst flood.” It occurs when water fills up a glacial or subglacial lake
basin to the point where the ice dam holding it back is forced aside. The City and Borough of Juneau is an
active partner with UAS for this Suicide Basin Monitoring Program. The SBJ purchased equipment that will
be shared with the University to better understand the basin water levels. This
partnership also includes the Forest Service for permitting, USGS, and the
National Weather Service for monitoring, forecasting, alert and notification. Hood and Assistant Professor of Geophysics Jason
Amundson will discuss the origins of the Suicide Basin outburst flood on the
Mendenhall Glacier and present results from flood monitoring efforts on the
glacier in the summer of 2012 at an Evening at Egan presentation Sept. 21.
