Flying in Alaska

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More Alaska Glaciers

These are more photos I took from videotape on the same seaplane sightseeing flight as my Juneau photos. The flight was an optional excursion I took on a day in port from an Alaska cruise. Be sure to see the other page of Alaska Glaciers.

Although glaciers look pretty still, they do move due to the effect of gravity on their large mass. Between the cruise ship and the seaplane flights, I got a pretty good view of the glaciers. I don't know which glaciers are in these photos, since there are several in the Juneau area of Alaska that are part of the 1800-square-mile Juneau Icefield. Some of these are the Mendenhall and the twin Sawyer Glaciers. Glacier Bay National Park is also nearby.

Glaciers go through a process known as calving, in which chunks of ice fall off. This typically happens where the glacier meets the sea. Some of the chunks are quite large and form icebergs in the water. The calving can cause quite loud cracking sounds. In some parts of Alaska, the cruise ships get fairly close to glaciers, and passengers can watch and hear the calving process. The icebergs that result often become resting places for seals and other animals. Generally, the smaller the cruise ship, the closer it can safely get to the glacier. We were lucky in that our ship was a small one as Alaska cruise ships go, with a capacity of about 800 passengers. Some cruise ships carry two or three times as many people.