At first glance, it may seem that all glaciers look alike, but as you spend time getting acquainted with the glaciers of Glacier Bay, you will soon realize that each is unique. Look all around for glaciers during your voyage of discovery. There are over 1,000 glaciers in Glacier Bay. Most are high in the mountains, but a few notable glaciers extend all the way to the sea. In general, tidewater and terrestrial glaciers in the Park have been thinning and slowly receding over the last several decades. Reduced snowfall in their ice-field sources and warmer temperatures during winter, coupled with an apparent reduction in cloud cover and precipitation during the summer, are the probable causes of this trend. Johns Hopkins Glacier is currently the only advancing tidewater glacier on the eastern side of the Fairweather Range, while the LaPerouse Glacier draining from the western side of the Fairweather Range continues to have a relatively stable tidewater margin, being the only glacier in North America that calves periodically directly into the Pacific Ocean. In addition glaciers within Lituya Bay continue to show advance.
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