Lamplugh Glacier, Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska, USA

© Andrew Peacock/Getty Image

Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska

We’re visiting Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve at the southern tip of Alaska between the Pacific Ocean and Canada. Glacier Bay is named for this area’s most common feature, the rivers of ice that carve the landscape and periodically calve icebergs into the sea. The park covers 1.3 million hectares of glaciers, fjords, rainforest, coastline and mountain peaks.

Pictured here is Lamplugh Glacier, one of the relatively few tidewater glaciers in the park; the vast majority are found inland. Lamplugh is known for its intense blue colour – ice and water absorb the red wavelength of white light and transmit blue light, which is what we end up seeing. The thicker and purer the ice, the bluer it appears.