Gastineau Channel

Geographical location

The Gastineau Channel is a 30 kilometer strait in the panhandle of Alaska. It lies between the mainland near Juneau and Douglas Iceland in the Alexander Archipelago.

At the northern end of the Gastineau Channel from Juneau airport in molded from Mendenhall Glacier Mendenhall Valley is located. A bridge over the Gastineau Channel connects Juneau with West Juneau, the former Douglas, on Douglas Island.

Navigable by larger vessels is only the southern part of the strait to the bridge. The consequences of global warming, however, lead to the fact that the navigability of the strait decreases. The melting of the surrounding glaciers and the associated relief of the land mass to million tons of glacial weight leads to an increase in the country, the vonstattengeht faster than sea level rise. Silt from the glaciers also fill the Straits. At low tide the Gastineau Channel is like a Wadden Sea.

Was named the strait probably by John Gastineau (1820-1885), an English civil engineer and land surveyor.