Topography
Located at the deep end of the Glacier Bay, Margerie Glacier extends over a width of about 1 mile (1.6 km) and extends upstream for a length of 21 miles (34 km) till its source on the southern slopes of the hill of Mount Root, at the Alaska-Canada border. Mount Root (elevation 12,860 feet (3,920 m)), named Boundary Peak 165, is a mountain in Alaska and British Columbia, is part of the Fairweather Range (Mt. Fairweather is the tallest peak with elevation of15,325 feet (4,671 m)) of the Saint Elias Mountains. It is named after Elihu Root, who was among the diplomats involved in settling the Alaska boundary dispute between the United States and Canada. The Margerie Glacier starts from this range of mountains from Mount Root.
Margerie Glacier at Mile 63 is perpendicular to the Grand Pacific Glacier at Mile 64 (widest glacier in the Glacier bay with width of about 2 miles (3.2 km)). It flows in southeast and northeast direction to Tarr Inlet, one mile (1.6 km) north of the terminus of Grand Pacific Glacier and 87 miles (140 km) northwest of Hoonah. Glacier Bay provides excellent glacier experiences of both receding and advancing glaciers existing side by side. Tarr Inlet forms the northwestern part of the Glacier Bay named in 1912 for professor of geology Dr Ralph Tarr. The Glacier Bay region, which in 1750 was a mass of ice of a single glacier, has undergone a dynamic change and is now a 65-mile long fjord.
Glacier Bay and the Margerie Glacier are approachable only by air and water. The steep dropoff of the Margerie Glacier cliff facilitates large cruise ships to park close to the glacier from where one gets incredible views of the glacier.
In a study of the bed rock geology and mineral resources of the Glacial Bay, out of 17 areas classified as containing mineral deposits, Margerie Glacier has been identified as containing copper deposits.
Read more about this topic: Margerie Glacier
Famous quotes containing the word topography:
“That the mere matter of a poem, for instance—its subject, its given incidents or situation; that the mere matter of a picture—the actual circumstances of an event, the actual topography of a landscape—should be nothing without the form, the spirit of the handling, that this form, this mode of handling, should become an end in itself, should penetrate every part of the matter;Mthis is what all art constantly strives after, and achieves in different degrees.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)