USGS Historical Topographic Maps for the Juneau Icefield area facts for kids

The Juneau Icefield is a giant area of ice and snow. It's found just north and east of Juneau, Alaska, and reaches up towards Skagway, Alaska. Scientists who study glaciers, called glaciologists, use old maps to see how much glaciers have changed over time. This helps them understand climate change.

Exploring Glaciers with Old Maps: The Juneau Icefield

The Juneau Icefield is a massive icefield in Alaska. Think of it as a huge, frozen blanket covering mountains! It's a very important place for studying how our planet's climate is changing.

Why Old Maps Help Scientists

Scientists called glaciologists study glaciers. They want to know if glaciers are growing or shrinking. To do this, they compare how glaciers look today with how they looked in the past. This is where old maps come in handy!

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has made many detailed maps over the years. Some of these maps are more than 65 years old. By looking at these historical topographic maps, glaciologists can see how much glaciers have changed. This helps them understand glacier mass-balance, which is like checking a glacier's "weight" over time. If a glacier loses ice, it's like losing weight.

How These Maps Were Made

The old maps used for studying the Juneau Icefield were created by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). They are scanned copies of the original paper maps. These maps were first printed between 1948 and 1997. The USGS scanned them so that scientists and anyone interested can easily look at them online.

The table below shares details about some of these important maps. It tells us things like when the map was published and what parts of the Juneau Icefield it covers.