Bering Glacier is a

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sov ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

. It currently terminates in

Vitus Lake Vitus Lake is a lake in Alaska. It is long and wide. It is named for Vitus Bering, leader of the 1741 expedition to Alaska. Vitus Lake forms the southern limit of the Bering Lobe, outlets via the Seal River to the Gulf of Alaska. Legends It ...

south of Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, about from the

Gulf of Alaska The Gulf of Alaska (Tlingit: ''Yéil T'ooch’'') is an arm of the Pacific Ocean defined by the curve of the southern coast of Alaska, stretching from the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island in the west to the Alexander Archipelago in the east, ...

. Combined with the

Bagley Icefield The Bagley Icefield (also called Bagley Ice Valley) in southeastern Alaska is the second largest nonpolar icefield in North America. It was named after James W. Bagley, a USGS topographic engineer who developed the Bagley T-3 camera and mapped Ala ...

, where the snow that feeds the glacier accumulates, the Bering is the largest glacier in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the C ...

. The glacier is named after

Vitus Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering (baptised 5 August 1681 – 19 December 1741),All dates are here given in the Julian calendar, which was in use throughout Russia at the time. also known as Ivan Ivanovich Bering, was a Danish cartographer and explorer in ...

Glacier retreat and earthquakes

Warmer temperatures and changes in precipitation over the past century have thinned the Bering Glacier by several thousand meters. Since 1900 the

terminus Terminus may refer to: * Bus terminus, a bus station serving as an end destination * Terminal train station or terminus, a railway station serving as an end destination Geography *Terminus, the unofficial original name of Atlanta, Georgia, United ...

has retreated as much as . The Bering Glacier exhibits "surges", acceleration events of the flow rate of the glacier, every 20 years or so. During these periods the glacier terminus advances. The surges are generally followed by periods of retreat, so despite the periodic advances the glacier has been shrinking overall. Most glaciers along the Alaskan coast have been retreating along with the Bering Glacier.''Bering Glacier: Interdisciplinary Studies of Earth's Largest Temperate Surging Glacier'' Publisher:

Geological Society of America The Geological Society of America (GSA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of the geosciences. History The society was founded in Ithaca, New York, in 1888 by Alexander Winchell, John J. Stevenson, Charles H. Hitchc ...

February 1, 2010 ,. The glacial retreat has an interesting side effect, an increase in the frequency of earthquakes in the region. The Wrangell and St. Elias mountain ranges that spawn the Bering Glacier were created by the collision of the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

and

North American North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...

tectonic plates he Pacific Plate is sliding underneath (being subducted by) the North American Plate The weight of the vast amount of ice in the Bering Glacier is enough to depress the Earth's crust, stabilizing the boundary between the two plates. As the glaciers lose mass, the pressure of the ice is diminished. This reduced compression allows the rocks along faults to move more freely, resulting in more earthquakes. Scientists from the

Michigan Tech Research Institute The Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI) is a research center of Michigan Technological University Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech, MTU, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Houghton, Michigan, founded in 1885 ...

, working with

U.S. Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

and U.S. Bureau of Land Management have recently discovered that the glacier is releasing approximately of water a year, more than twice the amount of water in the entire

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. sta ...

.Bering Glacier Melting Faster Than Scientists Thought
Newswise, Retrieved on August 24, 2008. Meltwater at the terminus collects in Vitus Lake, which flows via the Seal River to the Gulf of Alaska.Bering Glacier

National Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

References

External links

NASA Earth Observatory

www.beringglacier.org

CAC (Civil Applications Committee)/USGS Global Fiducials Program web page containing scientific description and interactive map viewer featuring declassified high-resolution time-series imagery
Glaciers of Alaska Glaciers of Chugach Census Area, Alaska Glaciers of Unorganized Borough, Alaska Glaciers of Yakutat City and Borough, Alaska {{ChugachAK-geo-stub

Glacier retreat and earthquakes

See also

References

External links