https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article308350255.html
"Paul Kennard knew Mount Rainier was in trouble when its most-visited tourist
attraction melted.
“I think the real warning bell for a lot of people was — ‘have you heard of the
Paradise ice caves?’” said Kennard, a retired National Park Service
geomorphologist previously stationed at Mount Rainier National Park.
Once an eight-mile network of caves with an entrance in the lower part of
Paradise Glacier, it was the most-visited tourist spot for decades before
glacial melting caused large chunks of ice to begin to fall from the ceiling,
endangering visitors and pushing officials to close access, he said.
Now, the caves are gone.
Kennard said the iconic caves were a sight to behold, with formations that
shone a brilliant blue when he visited as a scientist in the early 1980s. The
park closed public access to the historic caves — which had been drawing crowds
since the 1920s — around 1980 due to the safety hazard, according to the
National Park Service website.
The disappearing caves foreshadowed the lasting glacier loss that the mountain
faces today, which is rapidly changing its landscape."
Via Paul Ferguson.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
