Alaska and Canada Trip - Glaciers and scenery

[bulldog]

Too hot outside so put some more pics up. Apologies for the abundance of glacier photos but it was an incredible sight. What surprised me was how noisy the glacier was. Loud cracks and bangs like thunder. Was just the ice moving and cracking. We were very lucky the weather was so good and the sea so calm he could sail his ship up to within 1/2 mile of the glacier. Moved from the deck and sipped champagne on the balcony wonderful.

Sitka scenery first
IMG_1290 by Clive Harden, on Flickr

IMG_1244 by Clive Harden, on Flickr

IMG_1312 by Clive Harden, on Flickr
IMG_1312 by Clive Harden, on Flickr
IMG_1292 by Clive Harden, on Flickr
Aircraft were parked on waterfront of town
IMG_1313 by Clive Harden, on Flickr
IMG_1311 by Clive Harden, on Flickr

IMG_1263 by Clive Harden, on FlickrIMG_4534 by Clive Harden, on Flickr
Small church is actually a Cathedral

Ship then sailed overnight in the morning we were greeted by this scenery on way to Hubbard Glacier
IMG_1322 by Clive Harden, on Flickr

IMG_1318 by Clive Harden, on Flickr

All below are Hubbard Glacier
IMG_1363 2 by Clive Harden, on Flickr

IMG_1398 by Clive Harden, on Flickr
IMG_1362 by Clive Harden, on Flickr

IMG_1349 by Clive Harden, on Flickr

IMG_1354 by Clive Harden, on Flickr

IMG_1363 by Clive Harden, on Flickr

IMG_4575 by Clive Harden, on Flickr

hope you enjoyed as much as i did!

[jetdragon]

Amazing pics Clive - thanks for posting them.

The layers of grot in the glacier are presumably ash from fires or volcanic eruptions from many years ago..

[bulldog]

I would imagine thats true. I will have to check how long they said the glacier is, it is certainly many miles long . Just had a look on Wikipedia. The Glacier is about 76 miles long and takes 400 hundred years to "flow" from start to finish.

Clive

[viscount]

Certainly some of the layers within a glacier can be air-blown or even direct-fall ash from volcanic eruptions. Most of the material held in a glacier is plucked, gouged, scraped or worn from the bed-rock floor and sides as the glacier abrades its way downhill. Where there is a vertical band of moraine (material within a glacier), it is where two smaller glaciers have met, join and continue to move downhill as a wider single glacier, the former sides are now together in the middle. The rock and general 'dirt' across the top of a glacier is due to freeze-thaw rock-fall and wind-borne material from the bare mountain sides above the ice-sheet. The 'dirt' and moraine within a glacier become much more concentrated at the melting 'snout' as the ice around it become free-flowing water and leaves the rock behind. Geomorphologists have fancy names for the material in and dumped from melting glaciers, medial, lateral, terminal moraine etc. Regrettably kept none of even my best physical geography texts when I moved following retirement.

In the first photo of coastal mountains, the one looking directly up a valley with lots of glaciers flowing from high corries, but now with no main valley glacier, I can pick out several medial moraines where small glaciers have flowed downhill together, combining lateral moraines into the centre of the new wider glacier. No doubt plenty of recessional (end) moraine across the valley floor where there was once a valley glacier feed by those small glaciers left 'hanging' by the increasing rate o glacier decay (melt).

[bulldog]

Respect there Brian!! I did Geology O level, I thought you only had end and lateral moraines. I will post some pics of other glaciers and see what you think of those. Thanks for info

Clive