Hubbard Glacier
 

This Calving Glacier has an atypical response to climate, and the calving (ice falling off the face of the Glacier) of Hubbard Glacier is defying the global paradigm of valley or mountain glacier shrinkage by refusing to retreat in response to global climate warming. Hubbard Glacier is the largest of eight calving glaciers in Alaska that are currently increasing in total mass while advancing.  This is one of the fastest moving glaciers, with possible bursts of speed that propel up to 200 feet per day.  All of these glaciers calve into the sea, are at the heads of long fiords, have undergone retreats during the last 1,000 years, calve over relatively shallow submarine moraines, and have unusually small ablation (retreating) areas compared to their accumulation (advancing) areas.

The large calving glaciers that are currently advancing have been discordant with climate-driven glacier changes for a very long time. The glaciers that are currently growing and advancing in the face of global warming were retreating throughout the Little Ice Age (AD1350 or 1450 to AD1900) when most glaciers were growing.  It is a Global phenomenon.

The Hubbard Glacier advanced across the entrance to 35-mile-long Russell Fiord during June 2002, temporarily turning it into a lake. Hubbard Glacier has been advancing for more than 100 years, and it has twice closed the entrance to Russell Fiord during the last 16 years by squeezing and pushing submarine glacial sediments across the mouth of the fjord . Water flowing into the cutoff fiord from mountain streams and glacier melt causes the level of Russell Lake to rise. However, both the 1986 and 2002 dams failed before the lake altitude rose enough for water to spill over a low pass at the far end of the fiord and enter the Situk River drainage, a world-class sport and commercial fishery near Yakutat, Alaska.

You can expect to experience a magnificent jaw dropping sight while witnessing a scientific phenomenon.  This is truly a unique experience.