Columbia Glacier (Alaska)

The Columbia Glacier in Alaska is located 60 km north- west of Valdez and covered with a length of 50 km an area of 1150 km ². It flows from the Chugach Mountains on the southern coast of Alaska in the Columbia Bay in Prince William Sound. Its accumulation area is located on the slopes of Mount Eisenstein and Mount Witherspoon. To ten miles wide, the glacier tongue slips into the sea. The sole is 700 meters under water, the height of the ice wall above the sea level is between 50 and 80 m. The Columbia Glacier is two meters per day one of the fastest flowing glacier in North America. In the past 25 years, he has lost 15 km in length.

The cold, nutrient-rich glacial water in the surrounding sea provides for a high plankton density and thus for a large fish population, reside consequence of which many predators such as bald eagles, gulls and seals in the vicinity of the glacier.

The glacier was named by the Harriman Alaska Expedition in 1899 by Columbia University in New York.