Bruce Molnia, MA’69, points to two photographs, side by side. The first is of an enormous glacier sandwiched between ice-capped mountains. The second shows a river almost hidden by towering trees with a green mountain in the background.
It’s hard to see the similarities until you realize they are pictures of the same Alaskan landscape – taken from the same location – 120 years apart.
“The most significant thing, other than how much it’s changed, is how fast it’s changed,” Molnia said. “In about a century, you go from ice to bare bedrock to dense forest.”
After more than 42 years working at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Molnia, who is now a scientist emeritus and senior advisor to USGS, aims to expand his efforts tracking the changes in Alaska’s glaciers to show the impacts of climate change.
His first step was locating old photographs, which took him everywhere from a small postcard store in Maryland to the British Museum. Then, beginning in 2000, he started traveling to the locations of the photographs to capture them again. In total, he has taken more than 300 trips to Alaska and photographed around 250 different locations with historic photographs in hand. He and his son left for their most recent trip in July 2024.
“I want this to serve as not only a teaching document, but also visual documentation of how rapidly climate change is impacting one of our more scenic and vital locations,” he said. “Normal life as we know it, in many places, is going to be substantially disrupted over the next few decades, and we’re not talking enough about it.”
Getting started in marine geology
In 1965, soon after his 19th birthday, Molnia took a break from his undergraduate studies at what is now Binghamton University in New York State. He was taking a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Antarctica on the icebreaker Eltanin to collect marine geophysical data, working for Columbia University’s Lamont Geological Observatory. From then on, he was hooked on marine geology.
“The largest boat I’d ever been on before was probably the Staten Island Ferry,” he said. “This trip really exposed me to the broad spectrum of what marine science consisted of.”
Drawn by Duke’s master’s program in marine geology, Molnia later enrolled in 1967 after receiving a full scholarship.
“As a Duke graduate student, I learned how to conduct a research project, how to analyze data, how to write a research paper, and how to interact with research professionals and scholars, such as Orrin Pilkey, Duncan Heron, and Ron Perkins,” Molnia said.
He even wrote his first journal article at Duke, describing a method for processing carbonate sediment.
He later pursued his Ph.D. at the University of South Carolina, which had a Navy-funded oceanographic program that allowed him to study iceberg-transported ocean sediment in the North Atlantic.
A multifaceted career at USGS
Molnia spent a year working at the Bureau of Land Management at the U.S. Department of the Interior before he was contacted by his dream organization, USGS. Tasked with monitoring and analyzing the country’s natural resources, USGS was looking for someone to lead the Eastern Gulf of Alaska Environmental Assessment Program.
“At that time, the eastern Gulf of Alaska was thought to be the primary frontier area for future offshore oil and gas development,” Molnia said. “My job was to make sure each potential lease tract was examined for any problematic geologic conditions that might make it difficult and/or unsafe for drilling.”
He was detailed to other entities several times, first in 1986 to the National Research Council’s Polar Research Board, where he led a geophysical delegation to the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Later, as a USGS representative to the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee between 1993 and 1997, he organized and chaired three international workshops focused on Arctic pollution and the disposal of radioactive waste.
Then in 1998, he served as a Congressional Fellow in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he was responsible for organizing and operating the bipartisan House Oceans Caucus. In this role, he helped establish policy and provide information to Congress about critical ocean-related issues such as national security, sustainable fisheries, and international borders.
He also won several awards from organizations such as the Geological Society of America, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the Explorers Club for lifetime accomplishments in science and exploration.
Molnia has more than 500 publications, including USGS Professional Paper 1386K, Glaciers of Alaska, a 550-page ‘chapter’ describing the history and behavior of Alaska’s glaciers. This and other geographical-region focused chapters used satellite images and photography to summarize the behavior of the world’s glaciers.
‘A picture is worth a thousand words’
Part of Molnia’s attraction to visuals like satellite imagery and photography is how effective they are in communicating what is happening in the world. The before-and-after pictures he takes in Alaska illustrate the challenges the glaciers – and, as a result, the planet – are facing.
“Scientists and policymakers need to find simple stories to tell about what is actually taking place and why it’s important,” he said. “We’re missing a golden opportunity.”
