COLUMBIA GLACIER, ALASKA
June 23, 2006
The calving face of Columbia Glacier as of June, 2006. Since 1984, the glacier has retreated ten miles (17 km.), a process caused by interaction between global warming and glacier dynamics. When tidewater glaciers reach an unstable phase like Columbia has, vast amounts of ice can be dumped rapidly into the sea. Columbia is thus an analog for what will happen to tidewater glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica should they reach a phase of comparable instability stimulated by global warming.
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