Glacier Bay

Located in southeastern Alaska, Glacier Bay runs north northwest to south southeast for about 65 miles and ranges 3 to 20 miles wide. Glacier Bay and the surrounding land is the site of the Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, a popular cruise ship destination.

Explorer Captain George Vancouver found Icy Strait, at the south end of Glacier Bay, choked with ice in 1794. Glacier Bay itself was almost entirely iced over. In 1879 naturalist John Muir found that the ice had retreated almost all the way up the bay. By 1916 Grand Pacific Glacier was at the head of Tarr Inlet, about 65 miles from Glacier Bay's mouth. This glacial retreat is the fastest ever documented.

Glacier Bay contains 16 glaciers, 12 of which reach shorelines and calve (shed broken pieces of ice) to produce icebergs.