Slims River

The Slims River (Ä’äy Chù) was a glacially fed river in the Canadian territory of Yukon.[1] Until 2016,[2] it originated in the Kaskawulsh Glacier, then ran approximately 15 mi (24 km) into the southern terminus of Kluane Lake.[3]

The former mouth of the Slims River, at Kluane Lake
Slims River in 1992

Over the course of a few days in the spring of 2016 the flow of the river was changed.[4] Where the meltwater of the Kaskawulsh Glacier had been draining in two directions, now it was all draining into the south-flowing Kaskawulsh River, and further on into the Gulf of Alaska, drastically reducing the size of the Slims.[5] Researchers suggested the change in flow could be due to manmade climate change; this was the first time manmade climate change was implicated in the reorganization of a river.[6][7]

Naming

The Slims River was purportedly named after a pack horse that drowned while attempting to ford the stream during the 1903 Kluane gold rush.[8] It is crossed by the Alaska Highway at Mile 1065 (Kilometre 1704) just south of its confluence with the lake.

The Indigenous name of the river (Ä’äy Chù) refers to it being the outflow from Ä’äy.[9]

References
  1. "Kaskawulsh Glacier - Canadian Glacier Inventory Project". cgip.wikifoundry.com. Retrieved 2016-01-17.
  2. "Retreating Yukon glacier makes river disappear". CBC News. Retrieved 2017-02-20.
  3. "Slims River, Kluane National Park – Map Portfolio – Brodie Elder". bemaps.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2016-01-17.
  4. Shugar, Daniel H.; Clague, John J.; Best, James L.; Schoof, Christian; Willis, Michael J.; Copland, Luke; Roe, Gerard H. (May 2017). "River piracy and drainage basin reorganization led by climate-driven glacier retreat". Nature Geoscience. 10 (5): 370–375. doi:10.1038/ngeo2932. ISSN 1752-0894.
  5. "Receding glacier causes immense Canadian river to vanish in four days", Hannah Devlin, The Guardian, 17 April 2017.
  6. For the first time on record, human-caused climate change has rerouted an entire river
  7. Loukili, Youssef; Pomeroy, John (30 November 2018). "The Changing Hydrology of Lhù'ààn Mǟn - Kluane Lake - under Past and Future Climates and Glacial Retreat" (PDF). University of Saskatchewan Centre for Hydrology.
  8. "The Slims River Bridge, Alaska Highway". explorenorth.com. Retrieved 2016-01-17.
  9. Wong, Carmen; Ballegooyen, Kate; Ignace, Lawrence; Johnson, Mary Jane (Gùdia); Swanson, Heidi (2020). "Towards reconciliation: 10 Calls to Action to natural scientists working in Canada". FACETS. 5 (1): 769–783. doi:10.1139/facets-2020-0005.

61°00′40″N 138°29′30″W


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