SURGE OF BERING GLACIER AND BAGLEY ICE FIELD, ALASKA - AN UPDATE TO AUGUST 1995 AND AN INTERPRETATION OF BRITTLE-DEFORMATION PATTERNS

In the summers of 1993, 1994 and 1995, video and Global Positioning Sy stem location data and 35 mm photographs were collected in a series of systematic survey flights undertaken over the Bering Glacier and Bagl ey Ice Field system (Alaska) in an effort to characterize surge-crevas se patterns and surge propagation. During survey flights in late Augus t 1995, we observed that the 1993-94 Bering Glacier surge was continui ng and still expanding, affecting new areas farther up in Bagley Ice F ield. New crevasse fields, similar in pattern to the first surge creva sses we had observed in June 1993 below Khitrov Hills and in other iso lated areas of central Bering Glacier and in July 1994 near the head o f Bering Glacier (near the junction of Bering Glacier and Bagley Ice F ield, in both upper Bering Glacier and Bagley Ice Field), were opening in eastern Bagley Ice Field and in the ''Steller'' side of Bagley Ice Field. The type of crevasses seen in the new fields suggested that th e surge was propagating into these areas. By analysis and interpretati on of the brittle-deformation patterns apparent in the crevasse patter ns, some aspects of the past kinematic framework of the surge can be d educed. This approach may lead to a more general classification of ice -surface structures and to their linkage to ongoing processes.