Tidewater Glacier

Fed by mountain snows, a tidewater glacier descends down its self-made canyon until it reaches the ocean. Historically, many glaciers extended miles into ocean, but many glaciers are retreating. This Alaskan glacier is calving with the rise and fall of the tides. This far north, the tides change as much as 25 feet every six hours. The steep part of the glacier is called an ice fall and results in the jumbled and chaotic nature of the ice near the waterline. The dark bands in the ice are rocks and dirt scoured by the glacier in its relentless move to the ocean like a huge frozen slow-motion river.