The Surface Velocity of The Yakataga Glacier Alaska

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Author: Miller, Don J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1957
• Subjects: Earth-Surface Processes; Gulf of Alaska; glacier; glaciers; Journal of Glaciology; Alaska
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000024448; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000024448

Abstract The Yakataga Glacier occupies a steep-walled valley in the Robinson Mountains on the north coast of the Gulf of Alaska. The main trunk of the glacier descends from 1130 to 150 m. in a distance of 21 km. A rock fall at the head of the glacier formed a moraine of distinctive shape which advanced at an average rate of 114 m./yr. from 1938 to 1954. The surface velocity of the glacier at fifteen stations below the firn line was calculated from the displacement of the rock-fall moraine and other less conspicuous features that are shown in two sets of vertical aerial photographs, taken in 1948 and 1954. For this time interval the average surface velocity along the medial line of the glacier ranged from a maximum of about 90 m./yr. at a station 14 km. above the terminus to zero at a station 2.3 km. above the terminus. The technique of photogrammetric measurement of surface velocity by using natural features on the surface of a glacier has wide application in Alaska, where many glaciers have been rephotographed from the air after intervals of a few years to as many as thirty years.