Glacier Bay

Glacier Bay Basin

Glacier Bay Basin, in southeastern Alaska, United States, encompasses the eponymous Glacier Bay and the surrounding mountains and glaciers. It was first proclaimed a U.S. National Monument on February 25, 1925, and later enlarged and re-designated as Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve on December 2, 1980, under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, covering an area of 3,283,000 acres. In 1986, UNESCO declared an area of 57,000 acres within the park a World Biosphere Reserve, making it the largest UNESCO-protected biosphere in the world. In 1992, UNESCO included the area as part of a much larger World Heritage Site, extending over an area of 24,300,000 acre (9,800,000 ha) which also includes Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve, as well as Kluane National Park and Reserve and Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park, both in Canada. Part of Glacier Bay National Park is also designated a wilderness area covering 2,658,000 acres.

Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve

Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is a national park of the United States located in Southeast Alaska west of Juneau. President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed the area around Glacier Bay a national monument under the Antiquities Act on February 26, 1925. Subsequent to an expansion of the monument by President Jimmy Carter in 1978, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) enlarged the national monument by 523,000 acres on December 2, 1980, and created Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. The national preserve encompasses 58,406 acres of public land to the immediate northwest of the park, protecting a portion of the Alsek River with its fish and wildlife habitats, while allowing sport hunting.

Glacier

A glacier is a persistent body of natural ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It slowly flows and deforms under stresses induced by gravity, undergoing both ductile and brittle deformation, and acquiring distinguishing surface features, such as crevasses and seracs. As a glacier moves, it abrades underlying rock and debris to create glacial landforms, such as cirques, moraines, and fjords. Although a glacier may flow into a body of water, and can include ice shelves and ice tongues, it originates only on land and is distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of freezing bodies of water.

Bay

A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narrow entrance. A fjord is an elongated bay formed by glacial action. The term embayment is also used for related features, such as extinct bays or freshwater environments.

glacier

Noun

1. A large body of ice which flows under its own mass, usually downhill.
2. An area of a mountain where snow is present year-round.

bay

Symbol

1. ISO 639-3 language code for Batuley.

Noun

1. A body of water (especially the sea) contained by a concave shoreline.
2. A bank or dam to keep back water.