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Today we cruised into Glacier Bay. This was filled with amazing glaciers, remnants of the Little Ice Age which began 4,000 years ago. The glacial ice appears blue in many of the pictures because blue is the only color in the spectrum that is reflected by the highly compressed ice. We actually saw the Margerie Glacier calve over and over again, as chunks of the glacier broke off and dropped into the water. Compressed air trapped inside glacial ice creates a phenomenon called ice sizzle. As the ice melts, the bubbles burst creating an audible snap, crackle and pop.
The Margerie Glacier is about one mile wide, with an ice face that is about 250 feet above the waterline, but with a base about 100 feet below sea level. Glacier Bay is very deep as it was carved out by a glacier and then filled in with saltwater as the glacier retreated, creating a fjord. Much of the bay is over 1,000 feet deep. It rains a lot here (about 80 inches a year) but May and June are the sunniest.