Lamplugh Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska

Lamplugh Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska

© Michael Melford/Getty Images

Lamplugh Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska

More than two centuries ago, European explorers arrived at Glacier Bay to find it covered by one massive glacier. By 1879, when naturalist John Muir arrived at Glacier Bay, he noticed that the massive glacier had retreated, and the bay was now clogged with multiple smaller glaciers. Of course, Lamplugh, pictured here, at 8 miles long, doesn’t seem terribly small. It’s one of the seven tidewater glaciers that add some frozen Alaska drama to Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, as they periodically slough off huge chunks of ice into the sea.

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