The Nisqually Glacier on Mount Rainier, Washington (pl. 1A), has an unusually long and complete history of recorded observations. The first description of the terminus was made in 1857, and in 1918 the National Park Service began to record terminus recession annually. In 1931 the U.S. Geological Survey and Tacoma City Light, a local power company, began a cooperative research effort that included surveying transverse ice-surface altitude profiles to record changes in the ice thickness. Following a lapse between 1933 and 1941, the Geological Survey has resurveyed three transverse profiles almost every year.
Nisqually Glacier has been mapped at approximately 5-year intervals since 1931, and has been photographed extensively since the early 1900's. The glacier has also been the site for numerous short-term research projects.
This report is part of an effort to archive all the Nisqually Glacier data at the Geological Survey Water Resources Division Project Office - Glaciology in Tacoma, Washington. Over the years, many of the original data were lost as the responsibility for the Nisqually Glacier research program was passed from one person or agency to the next. In order to insure against further loss, and to provide a guide to the existing information on Nisqually Glacier, this report includes the following: (1) a brief history of scientific observations at Nisqually Glacier, with references to the resulting data, publications, and photographs; (2) a summary of the results of two long-term programs; the annual terminus-position measurements and the annual survey of ice-surface altitude profiles; and (3) a comprehensive bibliography of all publications known to pertain to Nisqually Glacier.
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