Glacial & Sedimentary Processes Faculty

Glacial Geology and
Quaternary Stratigraphy,
Geomorphology

Sedimentology and
Climate Change

Micropaleontology and
Biostratigraphy

This image on the main page, which is a link you may have selected to reach here, is of Taku Glacier, located 15 miles NE of Juneau, Alaska. It is the largest of the glaciers that drain the Juneau Icefield, and is a tidewater glacer - it ends in the sea. Because of the very large source area, the behavior of Taku Glacier has not been directly affected by climate changes and it has advanced since the late 1800's while others in the area have retreated. The terminus is stable for the present, but if it advances again it will block the Taku river, which it has done before repeatedly. The glacier has borne several names, of which "Taku" is the local name, in use since the 1890's and the one by which the U.S.G.S. knows it. "Klumu Gutta" or "Klumma Klutt" is the Tlingit name for the glacier, meaning "spirits home." ( For more information and the references for this note, visit these U.S.G.S. and Tongass National Forest pages. )