EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Ice Canyons of the Glacier

Mendenhall Glacier, southeast Alaska

Explanation:   It is mid-winter and we have hiked the mile or so across the frozen and snowy Mendenhall Lake ... and now stand in awe at the immense ice slabs forming these blue canyons at the foot of Mendenhall Glacier, here in southeast Alaska.  

Recently, in glacial time, we would not have needed to hike across the lake, as this glacier had originally filled the valley and reached 2.5 miles (4 km) further than it does now.  

But now it is in rapid retreat -- meaning that it is melting faster than it is forming.  

It is also sliding downslope, as glaciers do, under its immense weight, surging up to 2 feet (0.6 m) a day, and averaging 25 to 30 feet (7.6 to 9.1 m) per year, which is rabbit-fast by glacial standards. 

The glacier is still some 12 or so miles long (19 km) and has been retreating since the 1700s.

A panorama of Mendenhall Glacier, 
taken in mid-winter from the middle of Mendenhall Lake.
This is a land of ice, rock, and snow -- but also inhabited by 
bears, wolves, deer, and much other wildlife.

These massive ice pyramids form at the base of the glacier as it calves into
slabs and bergs.  This is dangerous territory to explore.  Recently, 
as I was warned,  a fellow became trapped while exploring these canyons of ice,
then killed as a massive ice block fell on him.

In an earlier EPOW, we had explored the freezing patterns that appear
in the clearer, dense ice of this glacier.

And we have explored some of the tiny and strange life on the ice, 
including snowfleas (which are not snow, nor are they fleas!).