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* QTVR Mendenhall Galcier 1 * |
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Recently, glaciologists examining sediments in the Gulf of Alaska have discovered evidence of glaciation over the past 5 million years. They suspect the area has been glaciated for nearly 15 million years. Few other places on the planet have experienced such a prolonged period of glaciation. In cooler periods, glaciers covered all of the coastal plateau. During warmer periods, they retreated to the mountains.
About 20,000 years ago, the Earth's climate cooled and the last of the great Pleistocene ice age glaciers advanced down from the Chugach Mountains. Glaciers formed in the stream beds of the coastal plateau and carved deep valleys. When the glaciers receded about 12,000 years ago, they had scoured the Earth's crust down to the granite roots of the Chugach range and scoured out deep fjords. |
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" Juneau, Alaska "
Grander than cities, great masses of compressed ice carve through rock and earth, changing the land, creating new valleys with power and patience! |
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