Tyndall Glacier (Alaska)

The Tyndall Glacier is a tidewater glacier located in the Chugach Mountains of Alaska, United States. It calves into Icy Bay, which is itself fed by several glaciers, including the Guyot Glacier. The Tyndall Glacier is notable for its rapid retreat since the late 20th century, primarily attributed to climate change. The glacier was named in 1906 for John Tyndall, a 19th-century Irish physicist known for his work on light scattering and heat absorption by gases in the atmosphere.

Historically, the Tyndall Glacier was connected to the Guyot Glacier. However, significant retreat has separated the two, creating a growing proglacial lake at the terminus of the Tyndall Glacier. This retreat has led to increased calving events and a significant contribution to freshwater discharge into Icy Bay. The ongoing retreat and resulting landscape changes make the Tyndall Glacier a focus of glaciological research, particularly in understanding the impacts of climate change on glacier dynamics and sea-level rise. The area surrounding the glacier is largely wilderness, with limited accessibility, making remote sensing techniques crucial for monitoring its behavior.