Who stained the glaciers of Alaska?

Most of the glacier images taken within the framework of NASA’s IceBridge mission show the landscapes of Greenland and Antarctica. But the shots received during the shorter flights over Alaska contain no less intriguing species.

Chris Larsen of the University of Alaska Fairbanks made these photos at the end of May during research flights to observe the Alaska mountain glaciers.
 
 

The first image shows a part of Wrangel’s mountains in the east of Alaska. Larsen captured them, flying over the glacier of Heaven, which stretches for more than 120 km and is the longest inner valley glacier in the world.
 

 
Ice here is not always crystal clear. As you can see in the photo, it has a dark color due to accumulated silt, rocks and other debris. These ridges of clastic material, called mid moraine, move down the middle of the glacier. “This is very common in the mountains of Wrangel and in many mountain ranges of Alaska,” said Larsen.

The median moraines are also visible on the pictures of the Klutlan glacier. This glacier, about 65 km long, extends from eastern Alaska to the Canadian Yukon.

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