We turned and headed further into the Tarr Inlet, where we
could begin to see the Grand Pacific Glacier at the very back of the inlet...
...and the Margerie Glacier to the right of the Grand
Pacific Glacier.
The cruise ship pulled in as far as it could into the back
of Tarr Inlet and then the captain slowly turned the ship around 3 times giving
everyone on board ample opportunity to see both the Margerie and Grand Pacific
Glaciers.
The Margerie Glacer is 21 miles long, about a mile wide, and
as deep as 2,000 feet in places. This
glacier is neither retreating or expanding.
It gets about 100 feet of snow a year and moves about 6 to 7 feet a day.
These seagulls followed alongside the ship hoping for a free
handout.
Where Margerie Glacier drops off into the bay, it is 10
stories high.
The stripes in the glacier are the rock and sediment the
glacier picks up as it is moving along.
The darker the glacier, the more rock and sediment it
contains.
At the base of the glacier, we could a tunnel...
...and waterfalls carrying away the melted glacial
waters.
Notice how blue some of Margerie glacier is in the below
pictures. The denser the ice, the bluer
the glacier.
We kept hoping to see an ice block "calve off" the
glacier. We could hear the ice cracking
occasionally which sounded like thunder.
It wasn't until after I was later looking at some of the videos I took
that I realized that I did get a small "calf" breaking off. :)
Watch the bottom right hand corner of the video.
As I mentioned previously, at the very back of the Tarr
Inlet is the Grand Pacific Glacier. This
glacier is 2 miles wide, about 150 feet high and 35 miles long. It doesn't look much like a glacier, does it?
The reason is that it is filled with so much gravel and
sediment.
Well now, don't you think it is about time for a picture of
us with the glaciers in the background?
Oops! Another one of Chuck's pictures. How can you take a picture of yourself and not look at the camera? :)
That's better, Chuck!
Since the ship slowly spun around 3 times, we were able to
see more unique features of the glaciers with each turn like the jagged peaks
of Margerie Glacier,
the black and white peaks,
and this ice formation coming out of the base of the glacier
that looks like a polar bear leaning out over the water.
Even looking out the back of Tarr Inlet was beautiful.
After the ship's 3rd turn around, it was time to swap places
with the other cruise ship visiting Glacier Bay today.
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