Alaska has around 100,000 glaciers covering 28,800 square miles. These vast rivers of ice store three quarters of the state’s fresh water. Interestingly, only 616 of the glaciers have been named.
On our recent Alaskan vacation we saw a number of glaciers, three in particular. When we docked in Juneau, we took an excursion that took us to the Mendenhall Glacier, part of the immense Juneau Icefield.
The picture above shows a large topographical map on display at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center about twenty kilometers north of Juneau, our second port of call. We had booked an excursion to the glacier which included a visit to a salmon hatchery and also a salmon bake.
The picture didn’t come out as clearly as I had hoped but it shows the vast size of the Juneau Icefield. It covers 3900 square kilometers (1500 square miles). If glaciers can be likened unto rivers of ice, the icefield can be likened unto a vast lake of ice that feeds those rivers. The Mendenhall Glacier (the red dot indicates the toe of the glacier) is just one of over forty large glaciers and one hundred smaller ones. For a clearer version of the map check out this one at Eric Knight Maps. (It’s the same map with more detail.) You can zoom in and check out details. The vast area labeled Juneau Icefield straddles the United States/Canada border with the icefield north of Mount Bressler in the United States and the icefield south of Mount Bressler in Canada. The border is marked but in a faint yellow. You can buy a copy of the map from Eric Knight Maps in two sizes at $50 and $60.
https://www.ericknightmaps.net/juneau-zoom.html
The visitor center is a short hike up a bluff and overlooks Mendenhall Lake and the glacier. Inside there are many displays explaining glaciers. There is also a theatre where they have continuous showings of a film about glaciers.
While there were a few walking trails, the duration of our stay was too short to do both the trails and the visitor center. After a couple of hours we hopped the bus to our next destination, the salmon hatchery. And from there to the salmon bake. You’ll find some pictures in the photo gallery linked at the end of this post.
Then it was back to the ship. And two days later we were sailing up Glacier Bay. It’s an incredible natural wonder covering over 3.2 million acres. Mountains soar over 15,000 feet and, of course, there are the glaciers, over 1000 of them of which ten are tidewater glaciers. The bay stretches five miles with several inlets extending it further. Wildlife abounds here. The map below (from a National Park Service brochure) shows how Glacier Bay has changed over the years.
According to the National Park Service, “Glacier Bay today is the product of the Little Ice Age, a geologically recent glacial advance in northern regions. The Little Ice Age reached its maximum extent about 1750.” The map shows the entire Glacier Bay area was covered by ice to just below the park boundary between Point Carolus and Lemesurier Island. The table of four maps (from the same brochure) show how quickly the ice advanced from 1680 to 1750 and how quickly it retreated after the Little Ice Age.
While climate change alarmists suggest change is happening much faster today, the speed of ice retreat from 1750 to 1880 is truly mind boggling.
The Wikipedia article on the Little Ice Age notes that this period may have started as early as 1250 and “The Little Ice Age ended in the latter half of the 19th century or in the early 20th century.”
The highlight of the trip up Glacier Bay was the Margerie Glacier at the end of the Tarr Inlet. The glacier is 21 miles long and a mile wide at its terminus. It stands 250 feet above the waterline with another 100 feet below the waterline.
Part of Margerie’s popularity is because it is a relatively clean glacier with not too much sediment turning it dark. And it is big!
The next day had us sail up College Fjord. All of the glaciers touching the fjord are named after American universities. The fjord has five tidewater glaciers and five more large inland glaciers as well as dozens of smaller glaciers.
The most spectacular glacier we saw on our trip was the Harvard Glacier. It is one and a half miles across where it meets the water and is 300 feet thick. The waters ahead of the glacier are surprisingly unclogged by ice and our ship got quite close to it.
The darker parts of the glacier are sediment and rocks scraped off the land as the glacier ground its wat to the water. Below is the other part of the glacier.
We floated around near the glacier for an hour before slowly heading off again. Although we saw ocasional calvings, trying to get one on video was a matter of luck. I had gone in to use the washroom as we were heading out and when I came out on deck again I switched on video record and lucked out, catching three good size calvings in short succession.
The glaciers of Alaska are amazing to behold. Definitely one of the highlights of our vacation. Be sure to click the link below for additional photos.
Links of Interest
- Photo Gallery: Glaciers of Alaska
- Where Both Men and Salmon Came Upstream to Spawn – our visit to Ketchikan, Alaska
- Weaver Creek Salmon Hatchery – a salmon hatchery in British Columbia