Grand Plateau Glacier Retreats
Sept. 7, 1984 – Sept. 17, 2019

The Grand Plateau Glacier is part of Glacier Bay National Park in southeast Alaska. During the 35 years between these two images, the glacier’s arms that flow to the northwest and southwest shortened substantially. At the end of each arm is a lake formed by the melting ice. The glacier deposited more “glacial flour” into the lower lake than the upper one, giving it a grayer color. Glacial flour is the term for fine-grained particles that result when glaciers grind up the bedrock over which they flow. Read more at NASA’s Earth Observatory. Also see East Arm of Alaska’s Glacier Bay Down to One Calving Glacier and Changes in West Arm of Alaska’s Glacier Bay.