Gastineau Channel

Gastineau Channel
The Gastineau Channel
Connects waters	Stephens Passage
with water	Fritz Cove ( Stephens Passage )
Separates land mass	Douglas Island
of land mass	Mainland North America
Data
Geographical location	58 ° 18 ′  N , 134 ° 24 ′  W Coordinates: 58 ° 18 ′  N , 134 ° 24 ′  W
length	30 km
Smallest width	1.5 km
Coastal towns	Juneau
bridges	Juneau Douglas Bridge
Cruise ship in the port of Juneau

The Gastineau Channel is a strait about 30 kilometers long in the panhandle of Alaska . It lies between the mainland at Juneau and Douglas Island in the Alexander Archipelago .

At the northern end of the Gastineau Channel, Juneau Airport is located in the Mendenhall Valley formed by the Mendenhall Glacier . A bridge over the Gastineau Channel connects Juneau with West Juneau , the former Douglas , on Douglas Island.

Only the southern part of the strait up to the bridge is navigable by larger ships. However, the consequences of global warming are making the strait less navigable. The melting of the surrounding glaciers and the associated relief of the land mass by millions of tons of glacier weight leads to an uplift of the land that takes place faster than the rise in sea level. Alluvial debris from the glaciers also fills the strait. At low tide, the Gastineau Channel resembles a Wadden Sea .

The strait was probably named after John Gastineau (1820–1885), an English civil engineer and surveyor.

Web links

Commons : Gastineau Channel  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Gastineau Channel in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey

Individual evidence

1. ^ As Alaska Glaciers Melt, It's Land That's Rising , New York Times, May 17, 2009
2. ↑ USGS GNIS: Gastineau Channel
3. ^ Gastineau Genealogical Society

Panoramic picture of Douglas (1914), today's West Juneau