EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Glacier Highways

Glaciers and Mountain Peaks, St. Elias Mountains
Southeast Alaska, USA

Explanation:  We are flying over the spectacular coast of southeast Alaska.  Below us pass the peaks of the St. Elias Mountain Range.  And an incredible procession of glaciers pouring from ice fields down into the sounds, mixing and merging as they go.  

Here, glaciers carry rock debris along their paths, forming lines of moraines as they carve classic U-shaped valleys with their land-reforming power.  

Along with the adjacent Wrangell mountains, this area forms the immense Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve.  As the U.S. National Park Service notes, this area is gargantuan in extent, equal to six Yellowstone National Parks! 

The main photo above is likely the upper part of the Malaspina Glacier that covers an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. 
   

Peaks here soar to over 18 thousand feet and even include the active volcano of Mount Wrangell.