How many glaciers are in Alaska?
There is no certain answer. There are 616 officially named glaciers in Alaska (see USGS Geographic Names Information System online data base), and many more unnamed glaciers. The Alaska Almanac estimates that Alaska has 100,000 glaciers — that’s a pretty good estimate. How many glaciers in Alaska have floating termini (or terminuses and which is it)? None – all the calving glaciers in Alaska fill their fjords completely to the bed. Ice shelves (floating ice at a glacier’s terminus) occur only on the “cold” glaciers (see Myth number 4) in Antarctica and Greenland. In Alaska, parts of some retreating calving glaciers are close to floating (such as Columbia and Portage Glaciers. What makes a glacier different from an ice cube or ice in a hockey rink? A glacier must: be formed from natural atmospheric precipitation (snow) move by internal deformation due to its own weight NOTE: these criteria exclude “aufeis” which is the technical term for the “glaciering” or “icing” that form during win
