How many glaciers currently exist in Alaska?
Based on the most recent comprehensive survey in 2011, there were about 27,000 glaciers in Alaska. However, the number of glaciers is a misleading statistic. Scientists are more interested in total glacial land coverage as a measure. The number of glaciers is less important since large ones can split up into several as they retreat. The amount of area glaciers occupy in Alaska is trending downward. Roughly a third of Alaska’s glaciers have been given official names that can be found in the online Geographic Names Information System.
Related Content
Which mountain in the conterminous U.S. has the most glaciers?
How old is glacier ice?
Are today's glaciers leftovers from the Pleistocene ice age?
Do ice worms exist?
Why is glacier ice blue?
Where are glaciers found in continental North America?
Where on Earth are temperate glaciers located?
How would sea level change if all glaciers melted?
What are the impacts of glacier loss, other than losing an aesthetic landscape feature?
Is there a size criterion for a glacier?
What is a glacier?
Glaciers Rapidly Shrinking and Disappearing: 50 Years of Glacier Change in Montana
The warming climate has dramatically reduced the size of 39 glaciers in Montana since 1966, some by as much as 85 percent, according to data released by the U.S. Geological Survey and Portland State University.
EarthView–As Glaciers Worldwide Are Retreating, One Defies the Trend
In this Landsat EarthView, one glacier in Chile bucks the global trend:
Fifty Years of Glacier Change Research in Alaska
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — This year marks the 50th anniversary of one of the longest continuous glacier research efforts in North America.
From Icefield to Ocean - What Glacier Change Might Mean for the Future of Alaska
Frozen bodies of ice cover nearly 10 percent of the state of Alaska, but the influence of glaciers on the environment, tourism, fisheries, hydropower, and other important Alaska resources is rarely discussed.
Melting Glaciers Increase the Flow of Carbon to Downstream Ecosystems
ANCHORAGE, Alaska Melting glaciers are not just impacting sea level, they are also affecting the flow of organic carbon to the world’s oceans, according to new research that provides the first ever global-scale estimates for the storage and release of organic carbon from glaciers.
Gilkey Glacier, Juneau Icefield, Alaska
Interactions between glaciers, bedrock, and surface debris on the Gilkey Glacier, Juneau Icefield, Alaska.
Glacier off Sargent Icefield
Landscape view of an un-named glacier off the Sargent Icefield, directly across from Wolverine Glacier, above the Nellie Juan River, in Alaska. Taken during a visit to a wolverine glacier field site as part of a study to examine how alpine areas are changing as temperatures rise in Alaska.
Alaska Interior Mountain Range
Alaska Interior mountain range shot with snow capped mountains.
Flat glacier surface, Juneau Icefield, Alaska
An ideal ice core site is the highest, flattest glacier in a region. In 2016, a transect of 7-9 m ice cores was drilled on the Matthes Glacier, Juneau Icefield to determine if recent fires are affecting the glacier surface. (Photo: Lucas Foglia, used with permission)
Llewellyn Glacier, Juneau Icefield
The rapidly degrading Llewellyn Glacier, Juneau Icefield.
Crevices on glacier, Juneau Icefield
Crevices on glacier, Juneau Icefield
Photograph of the Wolverine Glacier, Kenai Mountains, Alaska taken at sunrise in the fall of 2013.
Photograph of the Wolverine Glacier, Kenai Mountains, Alaska taken at sunrise in the fall of 2013.
Cataract Glacier
Cataract Glacier, Harriman Fiord, western Prince William Sound, AK.