The Columbia Glacier is one of Alaska's better known tidewater glaciers, both from the standpoint of tourist attraction and the model it provides for scientific investigation. In 1973 it became the object of close scientific scrutiny. In Alaska, some 50 to 60 glaciers calve into the sea, but exhibit such diversified behavior that they have baffled glaciologists for decades.
For instance, some ... Columbia Glacier, located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Valdez near the epicenter of the great 1964 earthquake, is rapidly losing its battle for survival. It is the last of Alaska's 52 tidewater glaciers to begin its epic retreat from the sea. Granted, Alaska still has plenty of glaciers left, but the tidewater glaciers--those that empty directly into the sea--are on a drastic decline ...
columbia softball camp, These trees, which can live longer than 1,000 years, grow on the rainy coast from the Oregon/California border through British Columbia and as far north as Prince William Sound. The giants have in many areas died in large numbers, puzzling scientists who later came up with a non-intuitive theory of what killed them. For comparison, that's right ahead of the Columbia in area drained and right after it in discharge. (The Columbia River also needs Canada to gain its rank; its source is in British Columbia.) Two Yukon tributaries also make the list. The Porcupine ranks 20th in drainage area, and the Tanana is number 16 for average discharge.
columbia softball camp, Columbia Glacier in Prince William Sound and Bering Glacier in the St. Elias Mountains are two glaciers losing ice at an alarming rate: during the past decade, Columbia has shrunk by an average of about 21 feet per year along the length of the glacier; Bering has lost more than 9 feet per year. Alaska is more than twice the size of the largest of the lower 48 states, and the amount of Alaska underlain by permafrost is equal to the size of three Californias. Ten states are smaller than the area covered by glaciers in Alaska. If glaciers of the adjacent Yukon Territory and British Columbia that connect to Alaska's ice fields (often referred to as the Alaska-Yukon glaciers) are added ... White works out of Haines with the University of Alaska Southeast and is writing his PhD thesis on mountain goats for the University of Victoria in British Columbia.
During his former employment for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, White captured 421 goats in Southeast Alaska, mostly around Haines, Juneau and Baranof Island. The big daddy came in 1971. Project Cannikin was a 5-megaton explosion that inspired the formation of the group Greenpeace, a group of environmentalists from British Columbia who joined together to oppose the test. But Greenpeace and many others-including Alaska senator Mike Gravel and Congressman Nick Begich-were not able to prevent Cannikin.
