The Lowell Glacier is on the move again.

Credited for turning Haines Junction into beach front property when it dammed the Alsek River back in 1850, the Lowell last surged in 1997-98, and in 1982-83 before that.

It's already crawled approximately 1.5 kilometres since it started to move last winter.

It has about 1.5 kilometres to go before it would cross the rest of Lowell Lake and reach Goatherd Mountain, again damming the river which runs through the lake.

Odds are it's not going to make it to the mountain.

Even if it did, it's unlikely the glacier would back up the Alsek the way it did 160 years ago, Panya Lipovsky, a surficial geologist with the Yukon Geological Survey, explained during an interview last Friday.

She pointed out the mid-1800s presented a bit of a mini-ice age around the globe, creating glaciers in the St. Elias Mountains, which were thicker and more robust than they are today.

In and around 1850, Lipovsky said, the temporary lake flooded the Alsek Valley all the way back to Haines Junction.

Beach lines are still visible near the community, and at Bear Creek and down the Alsek Valley Road, she said.

"It might be possible,” the geologist said about the likelihood the glacier will cross Lowell Lake.

"But because the ice is not as thick as it was back in 1850, it's probably not going to create a very large lake even if it did reach Goatherd Mountain.”

Scientists still want to keep an eye on it all the same, though more for its research value than out of concern over a massive flood, she said.

Lipovsky said surging glaciers are not uncommon, particularly in the St. Elias range.

Nonetheless, she added, the reason they surge is not understood exactly.

Generally, it's described as clogged plumbing, Lipovsky said.

There is a lot of melt water below a glacier, she added. If the plumbing gets clogged, the build-up of water acts like a slippery cushion when it flushes, and the glacier advances like a caterpillar or slinky.

Lowell's surge has prompted a multi-party research project which will take about $10,000 to fund, Lipovsky explained.

She said she's scheduled to fly into the glacier this coming Monday to install time lapse photography and weather recording equipment.

One camera will take pictures and transmit lesser-quality photos every two hours. That will enable researchers to see any obvious changes in its movement or whether ice has been calving off the toe of the glacier. The toe – the front of the glacier – is anywhere from 15 to 25 storeys high, and is normally parked along the lake's shoreline.

Another camera will snap higher-quality photos every 30 minutes, though it can't transmit, so the pictures will have to be downloaded at the site every six months or so.

The intent is to use the higher-quality photos to stitch together a time-lapse video.

Weather information will also be transmitted.

Lipovsky said when the gear is up and running, her department will be providing a link on the department's website (www.geology.gov.yk.ca) so those interested can keep track of what's happening with the Lowell.

A similar array of equipment was set up to monitor the recent 1.5-kilometre surge of the Tweedsmuir Glacier, which began in the summer of 2007. It was officially declared over with last summer

The Tweedsmuir, Lipovsky pointed out, entered the Alsek River but never really threatened to block it off.

She said Parks Canada is assisting with the research project, with hopes of using the time lapse video as a feature of interest at its visitor reception centre in Haines Junction.

The University of Ottawa will be purchasing satellite imagery prior to the surge and once a month throughout the summer to quantify how quickly it's moving, and how far.

"We are all working together,” she said. "As far as we know, it has been surging, since February of this year.

"We had third party reports from a pilot who flew over the Lowell Glacier in February and he suspected it was surging due to the fact it was heavily crevassed and it had moved into Lowell Lake.”

Lipovsky said best estimates right now put the surge so far at about 1.5 kilometres, plus or minus a couple of hundred metres.