Closer view of the glacier in the winter
Mendenhall Glacier is a glacier about 12 miles (19 km) long located inMendenhall Valley, about 12 miles (19 km) from downtown Juneau in the southeast area of the U.S. state ofAlaska.
The glacier and surrounding landscape is protected as the 5,815-acre
Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area, a federally designated unit of theTongass National Forest.[2]
Originally
known as Sitaantaagu ("the Glacier Behind the Town") or Aak'wtaaksit
("the Glacier Behind the Little Lake") by the Tlingits, the glacier was
named Auke (Auk) Glacier by naturalist John Muir for the Tlingit Auk Kwaan (or Aak'w Kwaan) band in 1888. In 1891 it was renamed in honor ofThomas Corwin Mendenhall. It extends from the Juneau Icefield, its source, toMendenhall Lake and ultimately theMendenhall River.
The
Juneau Icefield Research Program has monitored the outlet glaciers of
the Juneau Icefield since 1942, including Mendenhall Glacier. The
glacier has also receded 1.75 miles (2.82 km) since 1958, when
Mendenhall Lake was created, and over 2.5 miles (4.0 km) since 1500. The
end of the glacier currently has a negative glacier mass balance and will continue to retreat in the foreseeable future.[3]
Given
that average yearly temperatures are currently increasing, and the
outlook is for this trend to continue, it is actually possible that the
glacier might experience a period of stabilization or slight advance
during its retreating march. This is because increasing amounts of warm,
moist air will be carried up to the head of the icefield, where colder
ambient temperatures will cause it to precipitate as snow. The increased
amount of snow will feed the icefield, possibly enough to offset the
continually increasing melting experienced at the glacier's terminus.
However, this interesting phenomenon will fade away if temperatures
continue to climb, since the head of the glacier will no longer have
cold enough ambient temperatures to cause snow to precipitate.
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