Berlitz Pocket Guide Alaska Ports of Call by Berlitz Publishing

Author:Berlitz Publishing
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Travel, USA
Publisher: Apa Publications
Published: 2018-05-08T16:00:00+00:00

The galloping Hubbard Glacier

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Hubbard Glacier (Yakutat)

Unless the weather is being uncooperative, most cross-Gulf cruises call in at the face of Hubbard Glacier, near the village of Yakutat. The glacier face measure 6 miles (10km) wide and 400ft (122m) high, but its length is more impressive. When a block of ice calves off the glacier face, the snow that was compressed to create it has traveled 76 miles (122km) over the past centuries, beginning from 11,100ft (3,400m) on the flanks of Mt Walsh, which rises above the Kluane Icefield in the Canadian Yukon.

Hubbard is North America’s longest tidewater glacier (meaning it flows into the ocean), but unlike most tidewater glaciers, it is advancing. In the past 30 years, it has experienced two major surges large enough to choke off the entrance to Russell Fjord, turning this saltwater arm into a lake threatening to flood the village of Yakutat.

Cruise ships can often approach to within half a mile (800m) of the towering glacier face. The deep blue observed in the ice on a sunny day is created by light diffusion through crystals within the ice. On the ice floes formed by calving chunks, you’ll often see basking seals, who take shelter there from hunting orcas.

The Three Waves

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