Bering Glacier

Bering Glacier
Name	Bering Glacier
Location	Alaska, United States
Length	approximately 190 km
Status	retreating

Bering Glacier

The Bering Glacier is a large valley glacier complex in Alaska on the northern side of the Saint Elias Mountains near the Gulf of Alaska. It is the largest glacier in North America by area and volume and flows from the Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve toward a dynamic terminus that has produced ice-dammed lakes, outburst floods, and moraine-fed deltas. The glacier interacts with surrounding features including Malaspina Glacier, Bagley Icefield, and multiple river systems draining to the Pacific Ocean.

Overview

The glacier system lies within the Copper River Census Area, Alaska and occupies a portion of the Saint Elias Mountains adjacent to the Yakutat City and Borough. It connects with the expansive Bagley Icefield and historically fed the Bering Lobe complex that reached coastal lowlands near Bering Bay. The glacier has been the subject of studies by institutions such as the U.S. Geological Survey, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Smithsonian Institution and figures in regional planning by the National Park Service and local Alaska Native corporations.

Geography and Physical Characteristics

The glacier extends from high-elevation accumulation zones in the Wrangell Mountains and Chugach Mountains across the Bagley Icefield toward lower-elevation ablation zones near the Gulf of Alaska. Its catchment overlaps with drainage basins for the Alsek River and the Chitina River systems and borders protected areas including Kluane National Park and Reserve in Yukon and the Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. The ice mass exhibits typical glacial landforms such as medial moraines, crevasses, seracs, and extensive proglacial deposits. Satellite observations from Landsat and Sentinel-2 have quantified its elevation profile and mass balance across the icefield and outlet lobes.

Glacial Dynamics and History

The glacier has undergone complex fluctuations since the Little Ice Age with documented advances and retreats recorded in field surveys, aerial photography, and dendrochronology studies from the Alaskan boreal forest margin. Historical mapping by explorers including members of George Vancouver's era and later surveys by William Healey Dall and James W. H. Whittlesey informed early cartography. In the 20th and 21st centuries, research by teams from Columbia University, University of Washington, and the Alaska Pacific University used geodesy, GPS, and radar to measure flow velocities, strain rates, and basal sliding. The glacier complex has produced ice-dammed lakes and triggered jökulhlaups similar to those studied at Iceland's Mýrdalsjökull and Vatnajökull outlets.

Climate Change and Retreat

Contemporary retreat has accelerated in association with regional warming observed in climatological records from NOAA and paleoclimate reconstructions using ice cores and proxy datasets. The glacier's mass loss contributes to local sea-level effects in the Gulf of Alaska and is part of broader cryospheric decline documented for Alaska and western Canada. Studies published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and analyses by Climate Central have contextualized the glacier's retreat alongside anthropogenic forcing. Ice thinning, terminus recession, and loss of the formerly connected Malaspina Glacier margin illustrate responses to rising air and ocean temperatures recorded by sensors deployed by National Snow and Ice Data Center researchers.

Hydrology and Proglacial Features

Meltwater from the glacier feeds braided streams, the formation of moraine-dammed lakes, and the evolution of proglacial plains that interact with the Copper River corridor and coastal estuaries. Notable events include drainage of ice-dammed lakes that have propagated floods downstream affecting Yakutat and infrastructure such as roads studied by Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. Sediment loads from glacial erosion have created deltas influencing marine habitats in nearby bays, comparable to depositional patterns at Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound. Hydrological monitoring by USGS gauges, aerial surveys by NOAA aircraft, and remote sensing from MODIS have documented seasonal discharge, turbidity plumes, and changes to groundwater recharge in adjacent valleys.

Ecology and Wildlife

The proglacial and foreland environments support successional plant communities studied by botanists from University of British Columbia, University of Alberta, and University of Alaska Anchorage. Early successional habitats provide niches for species such as brown bear, moose, Dall sheep, and migratory birds including sandhill crane and waterfowl that use newly exposed floodplains. Marine areas influenced by glacial runoff host herring and salmon populations important to regional fisheries managed under frameworks like the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and monitored by Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Research on nutrient fluxes and primary productivity links to studies at Seward, Kodiak, and coastal laboratories at University of Alaska Sea Grant.

Human Use and Cultural Significance

The glacier and surrounding landscape hold cultural value for indigenous groups including Tlingit and Athabaskan communities and are part of traditional hunting and fishing territories tied to regional oral histories curated in institutions like the Alaska Native Heritage Center. Explorers, mountaineers, and scientists from organizations such as the American Alpine Club, Explorers Club, and academic expeditions have traversed the icefield. Tourism related to glacier viewing connects to operators based in Yakutat and Cordova, while impacts on infrastructure have involved agencies including Federal Emergency Management Agency and Bureau of Land Management. Conservation and research partnerships involve National Park Service, USGS, and international collaborators from Natural Resources Canada and universities engaged in transboundary cryospheric studies.

Category:Glaciers of Alaska Category:Saint Elias Mountains