Waypoint: Muir Glacier, Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska, U.S- 59°06′17″N 136°22′56″W

Muir Glacier is located in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve Alaska, US. It is approximately 0.43 miles wide at the terminus. The terminus is the end of a glacier. As recently as the mid-1980s the glacier was a tidewater glacier and calved icebergs from a wall of ice 60 meters.

The glacier is named after Scottish naturalist, John Muir.   Muir traveled around the area and wrote about it, generating interest in the local environment and in its preservation. His first two visits were in 1879 (at age 41) and 1880. During the visits, he sent an account of his visits in installments to the San Francisco Bulletin. Later, he collected and edited these installments in a book, Travels in Alaska, published in 1915, the year after he died.

Muir Glacier has undergone very rapid, well-documented retreat since its Little Ice Age maximum position at the mouth of Glacier Bay around 1780. Between 1941 and 2004 the glacier retreated more than seven miles and thinned by over 2625 feet. Ocean water has filled the valley replacing the ice.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muir_Glacier

Muir Glacier, Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska
1882 photo taken by G.D. Hazard;
2005 photo taken by Bruce F. Molnia.
Courtesy of the Glacier Photograph Collection, National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology

Maps showing retreat of Muir Glacier from 1941 to 1982

 Muir glacier is named after Scottish-born naturalist John Muir, who traveled around the area and wrote about it, generating interest in the local environment and in its preservation.