The given coordinates are where the glacier meets the water. You will need to know your distance to this point in order to answer several of the questions. You will not be able to actually reach this point.
Basic Glacier Information
There are over 100,000 glaciers in Alaska. Slightly over 600 have names. The basic definition of a glacier is years of accumulated snowfall compacting into ice until it becomes thick enough to begin to move. Glaciers are classified in several ways (discussed below). Although many people think otherwise, glacier ice is no different or no colder than the ice in your freezer.
Different Classifications of Glaciers
There are different classification of glaciers based on where they form. There are mountain glaciers developing in high mountainous regions usually beginning in ice fields and spreading out. There are also tongue-shaped valley glaciers often flowing into valleys. Piedmont glaciers occur when steep valley glaciers grow into flat plains spreading out into bulb-like lobes. Cirque are bowl like glaciers forming in geographic low points – they are often wider than they are long. Hanging glaciers or ice aprons are glaciers that cling to steep mountainsides. They are most common in the Alps and New Zealand. These glaciers are prone to avalanches. Tidewater glaciers are valley glaciers that flow far enough to reach the sea. Typically, they are half as thick as they are wide with half of the glaciers thickness being underwater. Thinner glaciers are an indicator of a receding glacier. These glaciers are responsible for calving small icebergs.
Dawes Glacier
Holkham Bay is the entry to two arms of water: Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm. While Sawyer is at the end of Tracy Arm, Dawes Glacier is located at the end of Endicott Arm. These two glaciers are often destination of Alaskan cruises. Since Tracy Arm is narrower, it is often has ice jams that keep small tour boats from approaching Sawyer Arm. When this happens, the cruises often changes their destination of Dawes Glacier.
Dawes Glacier is actually made up of several glaciers coming together at the end of Endicott Arm. As you look at Dawes Glacier, you will see several dark stripes that look like roads. These dark lines are called sediment stripes and occur when two glaciers merge together. As the glaciers merge together and travel downhill, the stripes become lighter. If you count the stripes and add one, you will have a good guess about the number of glaciers that came together to make Dawes Glacier. Dawes Glacier is hundreds of feet thick.
Rules for logging:
1. What type of glacier is Dawes Glacier?
2. Why are you more likely to visit Dawes Glacier that Sawyer Glacier?
3. Look at the dark, parallel stripes called sediment stripes (even the faint ones). How many glaciers are coming together to create Dawes Glacier?
4. Dawes Glacier is about 2500 feet wide. How thick should a glacier of this width be? Does this glacier appear to be typical?
5. Come on, you are on vacation, take a photo (optional).
Sources:
National Snow and Ice Data Center (https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/glaciers/questions/what.html)(https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/glaciers/questions/types.html) National
Parks Service (https://www.nps.gov/glba/learn/nature/common-questions-and-myths-about-glaciers.htm)
Nordic Quest (http://nordicquest.com/wordpress/?p=1162)
Antarctic Glaciers - Examining the Science of Antarctic Glaciology (http://www.antarcticglaciers.org/modern-glaciers/structural-glaciology/)