Alaska's Excelsior Glacier

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Text, Earth Watch, Exploring the Blue Planet by Satellite

 

An aerial view of Alaska's Excelsior Glacier on October 16, 1986

 

Text, since 1994, Alaska's Excelsior Glacier has retreated roughly 200 meters per year, nearly twice as fast as the previous 50 years.

 

In this false-color image captured by Landsat 5 in 1986, ice appears light blue and areas that contain significant meltwater are darker blue.

 

Over time, rising temperatures have transformed ice from Excelsior Glacier into a lake of meltwater. Today, that lake measures more than five times the size of New York's Central Park.

 

Melting has also destabilized the glacier through rifting, the development of cracks that cut through the glacier.

 

Rifting can cause large chunks of the glacier to calve, or break off to form icebergs, leading to even further loss of mass from the glacier.

 

Researchers project that the Excelsior Glacier's retreat will slow in future decades because it has already retreated so far. It is now based on a higher slope and is less prone to rifting and calving.

 

To learn more, go to: earth observatory dot nasa dot gov