Above and Beyond: Bear Glacier

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with the NASA Earth Observatory.

All images, illustrations, and videos courtesy of NASA except:

 

except:

·       Photo of Tasman Lake in New Zealand courtesy of Wikimedia user Avenue

·       Sea creature illustration copyright The National Library of Israel, Shapell Family Digitization Project _and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Geography – Historic Cities Research Project

·       Athabasca Glacier photo courtesy of Lucy Albert

·       Snowflake photos by Wilson A. Bentley

·       Electron-microscope image of a snowflake from the Electron Microscopy Unit, _Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture

·       Photo of snow-covered field courtesy of Emmanuel Boutet

·       Photo of melt pools from the collection of Dr. Pablo Clemente-Colon, Chief Scientist, National Ice Center

·       Photo of snow crystals courtesy of Alex Bakharev

·       Photo of ice crystals courtesy of Petr Dlouhý

·       Photo of Mt. Kilimanjaro’s southern ice field courtesy of Wikimedia user Chris 73 / Wikipedia Commons

·       Larsen B Ice Shelf images courtesy of Ted Scambos, National Snow and Ice Data Center, _University of Colorado, Boulder, based on data from MODIS

·       Statue of Liberty illustration courtesy of ClipArts101.com

·       Photo of boat in front of Eqip Sermia Glacier courtesy of Michele Koppes, University of British Columbia

·       Bear Glacier IKONOS image courtesy of DigitalGlobe

 

Music courtesy of Associated Production Music

Written by Andrea Gianopoulos

Designed by Marc Lussier

(DESCRIPTION)

A satellite image shows an expanse of green land beside a large block of ice.

 

(SPEECH)

[GENTLE MUSIC]

 

(DESCRIPTION)

Text, Bear Glacier; Kenai Peninsula, Alaska.

 

As a glacier moves, it scours the surface carrying and later depositing any rocks and sediment it has gathered.

 

This jumble of rock and dirt is called a moraine.

 

Vertical stripes run down the length of ice. Lateral moraine is labeled between ice and land.

 

Text, Lateral moraines form when the sediment is pushed to the sides of the glacier.

 

Medial moraine is labeled in the middle of the ice block.

 

Text, The dark parallel racing stripes that run along the middle of the glacier are medial moraines that formed from lateral moraines as two glaciers merged.

 

A cove of bright blue water with floating chunks of ice at the bottom of the glacier.

 

Text, At the end of the glacier, melt water has pooled into a crystal-blue glacial lake.

 

Its color is the result of pulverized rock dust, or "glacial flour," that reflects sunlight, making the deep-blue water appear much brighter.