Mercury made her way to Hubbard Glacier today at a snail's pace. The pilot--yes the pilot; not the captain--(apparently, ship captains only navigate; pilots actually steer the ship) steered her gingerly through a river of ice. It was perilous, the captain said over the P.A. from the navigational bridge, because Hubbard Glacier is known for calving (a glacier's breaking off into icebergs the size of ten-story buildings--rather like a birthing, I guess). We were all invited to go out on deck to watch the spectacular scenery. We promptly froze our buns off because it was some degrees below zero, as the Mercury inched as close as possible to Hubbard Glacier.
En route, we had several whale spottings. They heaved their massive bodies out of their underwater world into ours, as though in welcome. The shot geyser-like gushes of water from their spouts and performed their aqua ballet albeit quite clumsily considering their size (average weight is a ton per foot and they grow up to 50 feet long) to the cheer of the passengers. Whales are coastal feeders who love shorelines and bays, and are frequently seen in Alaska for that reason. They feed heavily while they are there, storing enough fat to fuel the long migration to Mexico to raise their newborn calves.
Hubbard Glacier is a tidewater glacier--the longest in Alaska--which stretches 122 kilometers to the sea at Yakutat Bay and Disenchantment Bay. It is 11,ooo feet above sea level and the ice at the foot of the glacier is 400 years old--which, they say, is how long it takes for ice to traverse the length of the glacier.
I did a bit of research before we got to Hubbard Glacier so I wouldn't be scratching my head when I actually saw it. Glaciers form because snowfall in high mountain ranges exceed snow melt, which is all we really need to know. It's just that the size of Hubbard and finally, the sight of it, was simply awe inspiring. It gave me a an accurate perspective of how relevant we are in nature's scheme of things--quite negligible. Glaciers all over the world have been receding at an alarming rate, 50 percent in the last century, because of our irresponsibility or even apathy toward the plight of our environment.
What you see in the photos that looks like a thick, rectangular ice field is the edge of Hubbard Glacier.
Glacier and polar ice store more water than all the world's lakes, rivers and the atmosphere combined, and if the world's ice caps melt completely because of global warming, sea levels would rise enough to flood much of the earth and more than half of the world's cities.
As I stood on deck staring at majestic Hubbard Glacier, the urgency of the preservation of our environment shook me.
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