LeConte Glacier is a and

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#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

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 sover ...

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 flows southwest to the head of

LeConte Bay LeConte Bay is an 810-foot-deep (247 m), six-mile-long (10 km) bay in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of Alaska, located east of Frederick Sound. The bay was named in 1887 for Joseph LeConte, then professor of geology at the ...

. It was named in 1887 by

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

Lieutenant-Commander Charles M. Thomas in honor of a California geologist

Joseph LeConte Joseph Le Conte (alternative spelling: Joseph LeConte) (February 26, 1823 – July 6, 1901) was a physician, geologist, professor at the University of California, Berkeley and early California conservationist. Early life Of Huguenot descent, h ...

. According to

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, a ...

's book about indigenous peoples of the area, the

Tlingits The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ),

called it “Huti ic�� which he claimed derived from a mythical bird that produced sounds of thunder when it flapped its wings. Since its discovery, the glacier has retreated nearly , although it is considered to be in a stable position toda

The glacier is known for its "shooter"

iceberg An iceberg is a piece of freshwater ice more than 15 m long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open (salt) water. Smaller chunks of floating glacially-derived ice are called "growlers" or "bergy bits". The ...

s which calve off underneath the water (LeConte Bay is deep) and shoot out of the water due to their buoyancy. In 2019 acoustic observations found that the submarine part of LeConte Glacier melts significantly faster than previously predicted by scientific theory. Being south of the

57th parallel north The 57th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 57 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean. At this latitude the sun is visible for 17 hours, 53 ...

, LeConte Glacier is the southernmost tidewater glacier of the

Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the Equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined as being in the same celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the solar system as Earth's Nort ...

. The glacier is a popular tourist destination, with operators from nearby Petersburg and Wrangell running excursions to its calving face. Students from Petersburg High School visiting also regularly to monitor its historical retreat. Also of the same namesake and part of the

Alaska Marine Highway The Alaska Marine Highway (AMH) or the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) is a ferry service operated by the U.S. state of Alaska. It has its headquarters in Ketchikan, Alaska. The Alaska Marine Highway System operates along the south-central ...

is the ferry M/V ''LeConte''.

References

Glaciers of Alaska Glaciers of Petersburg Borough, Alaska {{Alaska-glacier-stub

See also

References