Malaspina Glacier From Space {Photo of the Day}

This image was captured on August 31, 2000 and depicts the Malaspina Glacier, the largest glacier in Alaska, located at the head of the Alaska Panhandle.

The Malaspina lies west of Yakutat Bay and covers 1,500 sq. MI (3,880 sq. km). Named for Alessandro Malaspina, an Italian explorer in the service of the Spanish Navy, who visited the region in 1791, the Malaspina Glacier is spills out from the Saint Elias Mountains along with the Seward Glacier and Agassiz Glacier.

Radar data and aerial photographs which date back to 1972 have allowed scientists to determine that the Malaspina-Seward glacier system lost about 20 metres, or 60 feet, of its thickness between 1980 and 2000. Because the glacier system is so large, that much shrinkage accounted for one-half of a percent of the rise in global sea level.

Source: NASA Goddard

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