Muir Glacier is a glacier in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is currently about wide at the terminus. As recently as the mid-1980s the glacier was a tidewater glacier and calved icebergs from a wall of ice 90 m (200 feet) tall.
The glacier is named after Scottish-born naturalist John Muir, In 1794, the explorer Captain George Vancouver found that most of Glacier Bay was covered by an enormous ice sheet, some in places.
In 1904 the glacier reportedly "broke through the mountains" with Pyramid Peak to the west and Mt. Wright and Mount Case to the east.
From 1892 to approximately 1980, it had retreated nearly .
The 1941 image shows the Muir Glacier as a tidewater glacier, prominently up to 700m thick, with its terminus visible on the lower right corner of the photo, well connected to its tributary, the Riggs Glacier, visible in the upper right part of the photo.
By 1950, the Muir Glacier had retreated by more than 3 km and had thinned by more than 100m but remained connected to the Riggs Glacier.
By 2004, the Muir Glacier had retreated further inland, and its terminus was no longer visible in the photograph. The Riggs Glacier had also undergone significant changes, retreating by 0.25 km and becoming disconnected from the Muir Glacier. Vegetation began to dominate the landscape where ice once prevailed.
Gallery
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File:Muir Glacier, Alaska, ca 1897 (LAROCHE 176).jpeg|Photograph of Muir Glacier by Frank La Roche, 1897
File:Muir Glacier, Alaska, ca 1897 (LAROCHE 99).jpeg|Another La Roche photo of the glacier, this one showing "black ice"
File:Thomas Hill. Muir Glacier, Alaska. Oakland Museum of California.jpg|Muir Glacier, Alaska, Thomas Hill, 1887–88
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See also
- List of glaciers