Muir Glacier

Muir Glacier is a glacier in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located at , and is currently about 0.7 km (0.4 miles) wide at the terminus. As recently as the mid-1980's the glacier was a tidewater glacier and calved (or shed) icebergs from a wall of ice 60 m (200 feet) tall.

Much of the Muir Glacier has already melted away due to global warming; between 1941 and 2004 the glacier retreated more than twelve kilometers (seven miles) and thinned by over 800 meters (2625 feet). Ocean water has filled the valley replacing the ice.

The glacier is named after John Muir, the naturalist, who visited the area and wrote about it, generating interest in the area and in its preservation. His first two visits were in 1878 and 1880, at age 41. During the visits, he sent an account of his visits in installments to the San Francisco Bulletin. Later, he collected and edited these installments in a book, Travels in Alaska, published in 1915, the year he died.

See also

• List of glaciers

References