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The Grand Pacific Glacier originates in Canada’s St. Elias Mountains. It splits at lower elevations, with a substantial amount of ice flowing across the border into what is now known as Glacier Bay. The Grand Pacific is the main glacier credited with carving out Glacier Bay.
Grand Pacific Glacier is a 25 km (16 mi) long glacier in British Columbia and Alaska. It begins in Glacier Bay National Park in the Saint Elias Mountains , 7 km (4.3 mi) southwest of Mount Hay, trends east into the Grand Pacific Pass area of British Columbia , and then southeast to the head of Tarr Inlet at Alaska - Canada boundary, 68 miles ...
Grand Pacific Glacier is 1.35 miles wide at the terminus, with an ice face ranging from 65-165 feet, and a length over 20 miles long. Grand Pacific Glacier's flow rate is approximately 0.5-1 foot per day, according to satellite data.
Recent research determined that there is 11% less glacial ice in Glacier Bay than in the 1950s. However, heavy snowfall in the towering Fairweather Mountains means that Glacier Bay remains home to a few stable glaciers, a rarity in today's world.
Part of the tidewater glacier is located in Reid Inlet within Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska, while the other side can be found in the Grand Pacific Pass in British Columbia, Canada. Back in the 1700s, Grand Pacific Glacier filled the entire bay, and reached all they way to the Icy Strait.
By 1916, the Grand Pacific Glacier – the main glacier credited with carving the bay – had melted back 60 miles to the head of what is now Tarr Inlet. Glacier Bay - lands and waters reborn. What happens when nature wipes the slate clean and starts over from scratch?
Grand Pacific Glacier is about 2 miles (3.2 km) wide at the terminus, averages about 150 feet (45.7 m) high at the ice face, up to 60 feet (18.3 m) deep at the waterline and over 35 miles (56.3 km) long. Much of the ice margin is now grounded at low tide; the calving section probably reaches a water depth of only 30 to 60 feet (9.1 - 18.3 m).
Glacier Bay, on the Gulf of Alaska, was known as the Grand Pacific Glacier, about 4,000 feet (1,200 m) thick and around 20 miles (32 km) in width. Over the last 200 years the glaciers have retreated, exposing 65 miles (105 km) of ocean, and in this process left 20 separate other glaciers in its trail.
Read about glaciers west of the bay here, and about the glaciers around the bay’s East Arm here. In Glacier Bay National Park, the rugged landscape of water, ice, and life is in flux. Icebergs tumble from the fronts of glaciers, and plants are filling in where ice once covered the ground.
Grand Pacific Glacier in Detail. About. heads in St Elias Mts., 7 mi. SW of Mount Hay, trends E into British Columbia then SE to head of Tarr Inlet at Alaska-Canada boundary, 68 mi. SW of Skagway. History. Named by John Muir in 1879.