Yakutat was an obscure Alaskan town until 1986, when the Hubbard Glacier captured national
attention. Said to be Alaska's longest ice face - about 8 miles across - Hubbard lies at
the north end of Yakutat Bay. The glacier's rather odd claim to fame is that it is one of
the fastest moving glaciers in Alaska. About a dozen years ago, the glacier moved so fast
that it created a wall across the mouth of Russell Fjord, one of the inlets lining
Yakutat Bay, effectively turning the fjord into a lake that trapped hundreds of migratory
marine creatures inside. For a year scientists and geologists monitored the unusual event
while environmental groups debated whether man should interfere with Mother Nature by
trapping and airlifting to safety doomed seals caught inside Russell Fjord. Scientists
still can't tell us why Hubbard chose to recede to its original position several months
later, reopening Russell Fjord. The rip tides and currents that flow between Gilbert's
Point and the face of the glacier are so strong that they cause Hubbard to calve almost
continuously at peak tide.
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