Alaska - Glacier Bay

Margerie Glacier Calving #1 ... By the time one hears the crack/boom of breaking and falling ice, the ice has already hit the surface of the inlet. But there had been some smaller ice falls at this spot, and so I had aimed my old film-body camera, with a larger lens, and just started clicking off shots as soon as I saw movement of the ice. Just lucky. The size of the glacier terminus is huge (thousands of feet), so I estimate the largest falling piece to be house-sized.

Ferris Glacier, Glacier Bay Alaska, showing the effects of climate change. Increased air temperatures cause increased melting which exposes more dark dirt and till, which absorbs more sunlight, which further increases melting.

Ferris Glacier (gray and dirt-covered) creeps in from the left, between the headland just barely pictured and the middle-distant mountain on the left. Grand Pacific Glacier flows in from the far upper-right; the mountain in the middle of the shot is surrounded by Grand Pacific Glacier and is approximately 18KM distant. The boundary between U.S. and Canada runs very close to the combined terminus of these 2 glaciers; so nearly everything here except the water, is in Canada. (Click on photo for wide view.)

Tarr Inlet, Glacier Bay National Park ... (Suggest: click on photo for expanded view.)

Mount Bertha, from Tarr Inlet; Glacier Bay National Park ...

Margerie Glacier; Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska ... The distances are so vast and sizes are so massive, it is easy to lose accurate perspective. Nothing seen here is small or close. The centered ice feature is as big as a couple of houses (and will collapse into the bay in no more than a few days); the black ridge to the left is about 2.5Km distant; the mountains in background are about 15-20Km distant.