Location: Paradise Inn Great Room
Glaciers are shrinking across the American West, from the Rocky Mountains in the east to the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada in the west. However, the magnitude of these changes have not been broadly catalogued until recently. For the 125th anniversary of Mount Rainier National Park, Dr. Andrew Fountain will discuss how Mount Rainier stands out among the glacier-covered regions because the total area of glaciers on the mountain is greater than the sum of all the glacier-covered area outside the state of Washington. As a Professor of Geography and Geology at Portland State University, he’ll present a brief summary of the early history of glacier explorations in the West, discuss how and why the glaciers have changed over time and between mountain ranges.