Juneau Icefield Research Project (1949-1958)

The Juneau Icefield Research Project (JIRP) was formed to find a prototype area to study Alaska's coastal glaciers and trends in climatic change. For the past 57 years JIRP has conducted a systematic study of key receding and advancing glaciers, including Lemon Creek and Taku Glaciers. From this study, a model has been developed to study the mass balance of these glaciers and their relation to general atmospheric circulation. Taku's mass balance was expected to provide a meaningful assessment of flakier climate relations and environmental trends, specifically the increase in atmospheric trace element pollution and global warming.

Juneau Icefield Research Project (1949-1958) is represented by 15 chapters, organized in four parts: Background of the Project, Early Years of the Project (1949-1952, Later Years of the Project (1953-1958), and Summation and Epilogue. After describing the Project's background, Chapters 3 through 12 cover year-by-year activities, personnel, logistics, and research of the Taku and Lemon Creek Glaciers. These chapters included day-to-day journal entries that represent a record of the informal itineraries covering the course of the study. Chapters 13 and 14 summarize glaciological findings on Taku Glacier and the status of hydrological budgets on Lemon Creek Glacier through the International Geophysical year (1957-19658). The final chapter of the text is an overview of paleoecological work by the Project in North Pacific America brought into the context of modern research with the recognition of glacier-climate cycles.

* Documents the study Juneau Icefield Research Project on a year-by-year account covering activities, personnel, logistics and research
* Discusses the model developed from the JIRP and explains its importance in predicting future climate changes
* Presents the information with day-to-day journal entries, making the text attractive and easy to read

Part I Background of the project. 1. Introduction. Part 2 Early years of the projects (1949-1952). 3. 1949 Field Season. 4. 1950 Field Season. 5. 1951 Field Season. 6. 1952 Field Season. Part 3 Later Years of the project. 7. 1953 Field Season. 8. 1954 Field Season. 9. 1955 Field Season. 10. 1956 Field Season. 11. 1957 Field Season. 12. 1958 Field Season. Part 4 Summation. 13. Taku Glacier variations. 14. Lemon Creek glacier variations. Part 5. Late Quaternary Paleoecology of North Pacific America. An overview. 15. Glacial, climatic, and biotic setting.