Margerie Glacier
Around 1.6 kilometers wide, this hanging glacier has a dramatic 76-meter-high face. Big and beautiful, the river of frozen water flows 1.8 to 2.4 meters daily and very actively sheds icebergs. Those fragments contain compacted snow that fell 75 to 200 years ago, before half the states had even joined America. Presiding over the bay’s extreme northwestern end—perpendicular to the Grand Pacific Glacier—Margerie Glacier serves as the turning point for many cruise ships.More Recommendations
AFAR Ambassador
over 4 years ago
Alaska's Margerie Glacier
The Native Alaskans called it "white thunder": the crashing sound as loud as thunderclaps, produced by the shifting and cracking ice when it tumbles into the sea. On board our Alaskan Dream Cruise, the Admiralty Dream, we got to have an up close and personal interaction with Alaska's stunning Margerie Glacier. After departing Sitka and sailing up through Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, we took in the sights and the wildlife until we arrived to this massive chunk of frozen blue, shifting and groaning as pieces the size of houses broke off and dropped into the water below, a cloudy aqua color from the glacial silt.
