Mt. Bryce and the Columbia Icefield in the distance.
Meltdown! Exhibit, Guardians of the Ice (J. Elzinga and R. Vernon)
Glaciers and icefields
Jasper National Park
Jasper's Glaciers – Quick facts
Number of glaciers: 392 (2021)
Major rivers fed by glaciers: Hudson’s Bay (Atlantic Ocean) North Saskatchewan & Brazeau Rivers; Arctic Ocean- Athabasca and Smoky Rivers; Pacific- Columbia and Fraser Rivers.
Jasper National Park is the home of the largest bodies of ice remaining in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Every ecosystem and landform has been moved, affected, shaped and modified by them. Glaciers found in Jasper release water that impacts the well-being of even more ecosystems and landforms found far from here. And, these glaciers impact millions of people living downstream in North America.
Meet Jasper's glaciers
We’re pleased to introduce some of Jasper’s most interesting glaciers. Scroll through the images to find more, including many that you’ve never seen.
List of glaciers
| Name | Description | Image |
|---|---|---|
| Athabasca Glacier | The Athabasca Glacier is Canada’s most accessible glacier and Jasper’s best known. |
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| Dome Glacier | Dome Glacier is Athabasca’s closest neighbour, located just north of it. Visible from the Icefields Parkway. |
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| Saskatchewan Glacier | The longest glacier of the Columbia Icefield, this glacier is best seen and experienced from Parker Ridge. |
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| Stutfield Glacier | Another Columbia Icefield glacier that is visible from the Icefields Parkway a few kilometres north of Athabasca. |
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| Columbia Glacier | Jasper’s hidden giant, this glacier pours into a lake and is the headwaters of the Athabasca River. |
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| Columbia Icefield | The expanse of the Columbia Icefield is more than 300 km2 of ice, with glacier ice feeding numerous glaciers and sending meltwater into BC and Alberta rivers. |
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| Top of Mount Snowdome | This peak is one of two hydrological apexes (triple continental divides) in North America. Water from glacier ice here flows to the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. |
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| Angel and Cavell Glaciers | Jasper’s classic Angel Glacier gives way to Cavell Glacier below. Both can be easily seen from Path of the Glacier Trail in the Mount Edith Cavell area. |
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| Brazeau Glacier/Icefield | Headwaters of two important watersheds, the Brazeau feeds water into the same named river to the south and east, as well as the more famous waters of Maligne Lake - the largest glacially fed lake in the Canadian Rockies. |
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| Mount Balinhard | This small cirque glacier is found on one of Jasper’s easternmost peaks. |
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| Clemenceau Icefield | Another relatively large icefield that straddles the continental divide, feeding into the Columbia River system in BC. |
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| Robson Glacier | Mount Robson is just west of the park, but its large glacier complex straddles the continental divide and provides some of the headwaters for the Smoky River: a river that travels north to the Peace River and eventually Great Slave Lake. |
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| Resthaven Icefield | Jasper’s northernmost icefield, bordering the Willmore Wilderness Park. Water from this icefield feeds into the Smoky River watershed. |
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| Southesk Glaciers | Amongst the most easterly glaciers in the park and amongst the few front range glaciers in Alberta. |
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| Mount Dalhousie | Another front ranges mountain peak with glacier ice. Possibly Jasper’s most easterly. |
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Glacier recession
For more than a century, glaciers in Jasper have been shrinking. Driven by warming temperatures, research from a variety of sources shows that our glaciers are in trouble.
Glacier recession in numbers
- From 2021 to 2024, Jasper has lost about 4.3% of its total glacier ice. If current trends continue, the park’s glaciers will disappear within the next century.
- From 1985 to 2024, Jasper has lost 21.8% of its total glacier mass. The Columbia Icefield alone has lost nearly 13.3% of its ice over that same period.
- From 2017 to 2024, the Columbia Icefield has lost about 1.5 cubic kilometres of ice. That’s enough water to fill nearly 590,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools – about 1.47 million megalitres of water.
- In 1985, Jasper had 299 glaciers. By 2021, that number had increased to 392. This doesn’t mean glaciers are growing. As large glaciers melt, some of them break apart into smaller pieces, which are now counted as separate smaller glaciers. In other words, larger glaciers are shrinking and fragmenting. Smaller glaciers are more susceptible to rapid melt and less resilient to warming temperatures.
- Peak water flows in the Athabasca River are staying higher for longer into the summer and fall. Other rivers and streams across the park are changing in similar ways.
Information on methodology
Where did Parks Canada get this glacier recession information from?
Special thanks to Brian Menounos and Caleb Mattias from UNBC, the Hakai Institute and Natural Resources Canada for compiling this new data and making it available for the Parks Canada visitors and web-based audiences.
Jasper National Park legislative boundaries were obtained from the Natural Resources Canada Open Government data portal. The area extents – surface areas – for glaciers found in the Columbia Icefield calculations follow the flow-shed divides between individual glaciers (Stutfield, Dome, Athabasca, etc).
The extents of glacial areas can be measured in a number of ways, but perhaps among the most precise methods is in the use of LiDAR mapping technology.
What exactly is LiDAR?
LiDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing technology that uses laser light to measure distances and create detailed 3D models of objects and environments. It works by emitting laser pulses and measuring the time it takes for the light to return after hitting a target, allowing for precise distance calculations. For this project, airborne LiDAR surveys of glaciers in Jasper’s Columbia Icefield were made possible by the Hakai Institute in partnership with the Airborne Coastal Observatory. LiDAR technology has a wide range of mapping and research applications in Parks Canada places.
How many lidar images does it take to make a map or study of Jasper’s glaciers?
Airborne LiDAR surveys produce millions of individual laser measurements, which together form a dense “point cloud” of the surface that can be processed into an image where each pixel represents an elevation value of the surface.
What methods were used to count the glaciers?
Each glacier was counted once using satellite photos to determine the number of individual glaciers, where it be as small as .05 km2 glacier and as large as a 264 km2 ice sheet. The count of individual glaciers represents one glacier each, regardless of size.
How were glacier extents determined?
- All the extents of glaciers were delineated manually and saved as shapefiles using satellite imagery from the years 1985, 2021 and 2024. Satellite images were filtered to minimize cloud and snow cover and exported using Google Earth Engine.
- The extents of glaciers used to measure volume were taken from 2009 glacier boundaries published by Tennant and Menounos (2013).Footnote *
How were individual glaciers distinguished from one another within the Columbia Icefield?
Flow shed divides are heights of land in an icefield that delineate one glacier’s glow from another and separate the Columbia Icefield into 25 separate glaciers.
Note: this method was used to calculate individual glacier volume change statistics within the icefield (e.g., estimate volume changes of Athabasca, Stutfield, etc.), and is not reflected in the number of glaciers for each year. For that data, the icefield was treated as one contiguous glacier.
Work by Parks Canada and partners
The first priority in managing Canada’s national parks is protecting and understanding ecological integrity. Glaciers and icefields play a vital role in the health of glacier-fed rivers, streams, and lakes, as well as alpine and subalpine ecosystems.
To understand what’s happening, Parks Canada focuses on monitoring, documenting, and researching glaciers. This work helps us understand how and why glaciers are changing.
There is still much to learn, and Parks Canada cannot do this work alone. We work closely with many research partners who study different aspects of glacier change. Together, their findings help build a clearer picture of the past, present, and future of glaciers in Jasper. Visit the Jasper National Park glaciers research website to learn more about these projects.
Working together
Glacier melt and loss is a worldwide phenomenon. These changes can feel overwhelming, but action also requires individuals and grows through collective effort.
What can you do?
- Take actions at home that reduce your footprint on the world.
- Stay informed about glacier change and how communities can adapt.
- Join or support organizations that work to create change to protect these special places and reduce climate impacts.
Picture the change
Every year, Parks Canada and our partners record the changes that are happening on the landscape through a variety of monitoring methods, including repeat photography.
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