Racing Stripes A Bear Glacier, Alaska, USA story
Glaciers
Water
Glaciers move slowly, but Bear Glacier seems to have racing stripes. Glaciers pick up dirt and debris from the rocks they pass. They deposit that material in accumulations called moraines. A lateral moraine is the material on the sides of a glacier.
Two glaciers flowing together form a medial moraine in the middle where they join and show up as those dark stripes. When a glacier has a medial moraine, it’s made up of more than one ice flow.
Location
Aug. 10, 1976, Landsat 2 (path/row 74/18) — Bear Glacier, Alaska, USA
June 18, 1984, Landsat 5 (path/row 69/18) — Bear Glacier, Alaska, USA
Sep. 27, 1994, Landsat 5 (path/row 68/18) — Bear Glacier, Alaska, USA
July 1, 2000, Landsat 7 (path/row 68/18) — Bear Glacier, Alaska, USA
Aug. 5, 2001, Landsat 7 (path/row 68/18) — Bear Glacier, Alaska, USA
June 21, 2005, Landsat 5 (path/row 68/18) — Bear Glacier, Alaska, USA
July 21, 2007, Landsat 7 (path/row 68/18) — Bear Glacier, Alaska, USA
Sep. 15, 2010, Landsat 7 (path/row 68/18) — Bear Glacier, Alaska, USA
Sep. 2, 2014, Landsat 8 (path/row 68/18) — Bear Glacier, Alaska, USA
Sep. 4, 2018, Landsat 8 (path/row 69/18) — Bear Glacier, Alaska, USA
Sept. 9, 2020, Landsat 8 (path/row 69/18) — Bear Glacier, Alaska, USA
Bear Glacier, Alaska, USA Additional Imagery & Stories
Bear Glacier Lagoon
Before 1950, the entire basin was covered by Bear Glacier and ended at a terminal moraine. By 1961, a small lake had formed, referred to as Bear Glaci...
Glacial Retreat
A stable glacier advances a little in the winter and retreats the same amount in the summer. Bear Glacier likely did this and gradually built up a ter...
Glacier Repeat Photography
USGS uses repeat photography of glaciers to quantify changes in glaciers over time. Repeat photography is a technique in which a historical photograph...