Margerie Glacier Beauty

by D Hackett

Title

Margerie Glacier Beauty

Artist

D Hackett

Medium

Photograph - 35mm Film Scanned To Digital

Description

Margerie Glacier Beauty by D Hackett

Margerie Glacier is about 1-mile wide, with an ice face that is about 250 feet high above the waterline, but with its base about 100 feet below sea level. The glacier is about 21 miles long and extends into snow-fields in the Fairweather Range where elevations exceed 9000 feet. The ice flows about 2000 feet per year, or about 6 feet per day. It has been advancing about 30 feet per year for the past couple of decades. Margerie Glacier joined Grand Pacific Glacier about 1990, but they have since separated as Grand Pacific recedes. Margerie Glacier is a hanging glacier with its base about 600 feet above the floor of Tarr Inlet near its center. Margerie�s terminus was relatively stable in position through the 90�s; however, about 1998 the northern third of the terminus began a slight recession, forming a small embayment within the ice face. Over the last 3 years, this part of the terminus has thinned and the embayment has expanded. In contrast, the southern half of the margin appears to be slowly (feet per year) advancing. The northern most part of the ice is grounded on morainal materials where it is separated from Grand Pacific Glacier by a small lateral stream. Most meltwater discharges from subglacial streams below the water surface within the central area of the glacier; upwellings and occasionally fountains, locate where the water emerges at the ocean surface. Seabirds commonly feed in these freshwater upwellings.

Uploaded

September 15th, 2013

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