The Work of Giants: Glaciology and Glacial Retreat in the Canadian Rockies
The Work of Giants Glaciology and Glacial Retreat in the Canadian Rockies Guest Writer Eden Luymes, Summer Interpreter 2018 The Illecillewaet Glacier in 1898, with the glacier’s extent in 1887 marked on a rock. For centuries, glaciers have been hard at work. Like giant sculptors, ancient glaciers carved out entire valleys and chiseled towering mountains. They continue to supply lakes, rivers, and even distant oceans with water. They are ever changing; always moving and flowing. The only constant for these impressive giants is change. However, that change is becoming increasingly rapid, and increasingly permanent: our glaciers are retreating. The first people to study glaciers in the Canadian Rockies were the Vaux family. A Quaker family from Philadelphia, they first visited these mountains in the summer of 1887, and would make many return trips to the region. Mary, George, and William Vaux, all siblings, took an interest in these glaciers whe...