Peto glacier in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada was once one of the most closely monitored glaciers in the world. In 1968, the United Nations selected Peto as the reference glacier for the international hydrological decade research program. Since then, the research team has regularly traveled to the Canadian Rockies for field work and calculated the mass changes of glaciers, providing the scientific community with longer and more detailed Peto data records than most other glaciers.
According to data released by the world glacier monitoring service, in most years, Peto lost much more quality than it gained. Experts say it has lost about 70% of its quality in the past 50 years.
The extent of this change can be seen in satellite images obtained by Landsat. The natural color image above shows the glaciers in 1999 and 2021. As the glacier thins and narrows, the terminal has retreated by about a kilometer (0.6 miles), replaced by a growing melt lake, which is now near the terminal.
Most observers attribute the loss of ice to a rise in summer temperatures. In 2021, the region suffered a record summer heat wave and wildfires to the west of Banff National Park. According to some scientists, endothermic smoke from Wildfire smoke has been accumulating on it, possibly accelerating the rate of ice loss. In contrast, the amount of snow in winter has remained basically unchanged in the past few decades.
Some experts estimate that by 2100, the glacier will lose about 85% of its current mass. Glacial meltwater helps maintain the water volume of the North Saskatchewan River, but the degradation and eventual disappearance of this glacier may have a significant impact on people in Alberta and Saskatchewan who are accustomed to using the river. Of course, glacier retreat is a common phenomenon, not limited to Peto glacier. Several other glaciers in the waputa ice sheet in the picture have also lost a large amount of area since 1999, including Yoho glacier.