Baked Alaska: a unique study documents the disappearance of Alaska's glaciers, blamed on global warming.(PHENOMENA & CURIOSITIES)

Publication: Smithsonian

Publication Date: 01-AUG-05

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In the late 1800s, Alaska's top tourist attraction was Muir Glacier. Ladies in ankle-length dresses and gentlemen in neckties and fedora hats strolled a boardwalk at the foot of this natural wonder. Glaciers are still a big draw in Alaska; every year, more than 350,000 people visit Muir Glacier's home, Glacier Bay National Park. But the scenery there has changed as dramatically as clothing fashions.

As mighty as glaciers look from the deck of a cruise ship, they are surprisingly fragile. A unique collection of photographs of Alaskan glaciers taken over the past century shows that as temperatures have risen there by about 5 degrees Fahrenheit, almost all of the glaciers have retreated into the hills. Bruce Molnia, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Reston, Virginia, started collecting...

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