Hubbard Glacier Hubbard is a 300' ice wall huge ADVANCING glacier...Be sure to see the most interesting pics on this link!
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From its source on Mount Logan in the Yukon territory, Hubbard Glacier stretches 76 miles to the sea at Yakutat and Disenchantment Bays. It is the longest tidewater glacier in Alaska, with an open calving face over six miles wide.
Before it reaches the sea, Hubbard is joined by the Valerie Glacier to the west, which, through forward surges of its own ice, has contributed to the advance of the ice flow that experts believe will eventually dam the Russell Fiord from Disenchantment Bay waters.
The Hubbard Glacier ice margin has continued to advance for about a century. In 1986, the glacier temporarily closed the connection between Russell Fiord and Disenchantment Bay (for a review of this event, visit the USGS web site).
In spring 2002, the glacier again approached Gilbert Point. It pushed a terminal moraine ahead of its face and closed the opening again in July. On August 14, the terminal moraine was washed away after rains had raised the water level behind the dam it formed to 61 feet above sea level. (See the photo gallery for images of the 2002 advance and 2003 activity.)
The next phase of Hubbard's advance has begun. The National Park Service has been flying over the glacier intermittently all winter and continues to do so.
The Forest Service, National Park Service, and U.S.Geological Service are continuing to monitor Hubbard Glacier. After a fairly static year last year, Hubbard has picked up speed this spring. On May 3, the gap was estimated at 640 feet (195 meters). Monitoring will continue and updates will be posted.
This year's progression is documented in photos in an updated photo gallery.
Hubbard is one of a type of glacier found in the United States only in Alaska - a tidewater glacier. These glaciers calve when giant pieces of ice crack off the head of the glacier and fall into the sea. Hubbard's calving has produced the slurry of ice seen in the foreground of the photo above as well as the growing mass of ice bergs collecting behind the constriction at the head of Russell Fiord/Lake.
While the faces of most glaciers advance very slowly if at all, Hubbard is an exception. Fast glacier flow fascinates glaciologists, who met in Yakutat in mid-June 2002 for an international symposium on fast glacier flow, a timely and well-placed meeting.
Updated June 8, 2004 |
