GLACIOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN ALASKA 



William O. Field, Jr. 



American Geographical Society 



Glaciological Research in Alaska and the adjacent portions of 

 Canada dates from 1863 when Professor W. P. Blake (5), as a 

 guest scientist of a Russian Naval squadron, visited the lower 

 Stikine River and reported on several of the glaciers in what 

 was then called "Russian America." During the next four 

 decades, the location and approximate extent of existing glaciers 

 were determined. Since 1940, important gaps in our knowledge 

 of their size and distribution have been filled by means of aerial 

 photography, performed as part of the mapping operations of 

 World War II. For the first time, therefore, we now have a 

 record, perhaps 95 percent complete, of the outward appearance 

 and characteristics of the glaciers in Alaska and adjacent British 

 Columbia and the Yukon. 1 



The general features of Alaskan glaciation were known by 

 1900, including the fact that Alaska has a little less than 20,000 

 square miles of ice with perhaps another 5,000 square miles in 

 the adjacent parts of Canada. Although this represents some- 

 what less than three and one-half percent of the land area of 

 Alaska, the glaciers are nevertheless among the largest outside 

 the Polar Regions, with only those in Patagonia and the Central 

 Asiatic-Himalayan Mountain system attaining comparable size. 

 As an area for glaciological research, both in terms of glacial 

 geology and the study of existing glaciers, it is unsurpassed. By 

 comparison with the Alps and Scandinavia or even our Pacific 

 Northwest, the intensive investigation of these glaciers is more 

 difficult because of their not being located near large centers of 

 population, but, nevertheless, it may be said that no glaciers 

 of comparable size are as accessible for purposes of detailed 



1 The selected bibliography at the end of this paper lists the principal pub- 

 lished accounts of the observations of individuals and expeditions cited in the 

 text. 



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