Riggs glacier
| Riggs glacier | ||
|---|---|---|
 Riggs Glacier (1992) |
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| location | Alaska ( USA ) | |
| Mountains | Alsek Ranges ( Elias chain ) | |
| Type | Valley glacier | |
| length | 23 km | |
| Exposure | south | |
| Altitude range | 1200 m - 0 m | |
| width | ⌀ 2 km | |
| Coordinates | 59 ° 8 ′ N , 136 ° 13 ′ W | |
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| drainage | Muir Inlet ( Glacier Bay ) | |
| particularities | former tidal glacier ; Glacier retreat | |
 Retreat of the glaciers at Muir Inlet between 1941 and 1982 |
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The Riggs Glacier is a 23 km long glacier in Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska .
geography
The glacier has its nutrient area on the southern flank of the Takhinsha Mountains in the Alsek Ranges . From there, the glacier, which is an average of two kilometers wide, flows in a predominantly south-southeast direction and ends on the north shore of Muir Inlet , a fjord of Glacier Bay .
Glacier development
The Riggs Glacier steadily retreated over the course of the 20th century. During the 1980s, the Riggs Glacier only reached the sea at high tide. The glacier tongue is divided in two by a rock. The thickness of the glacier has steadily decreased since the 2000s. The retreat speed of the Riggs Glacier was between 7 and 10 meters per year in the early 2000s.
Naming
The glacier was named by the American Geographical Society in 1947 after Thomas Riggs Jr. (1873-1945), 1918-21 Governor of the Alaska Territory .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Daniel E. Lawson: An Overview of Selected Glaciers in Glacier Bay (PDF, 698 KB) National Park Service, US Dept. of the Interior. February 2004. Retrieved November 22, 2017.
- ↑ Riggs Glacier in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey