McGinnis
Glacier surge
On March 12 I did a snow machine trip to the McGinnis Glacier with
local snow machine afficionados Dick Flaherty, Mike Reitz, and Ramona
Finoff. We were going to look at some giant landslides that had fallen
of Mt. McGinnis during the 2002 Denali Fault M7.9 Earthquake. To our
great surprise we found the glacier in full surge.
Photo: M. Truffer
This picture is from an adjacent ridge and shows the very chaotically
crevassed glacier surface near the terminus.
McGinnis Glacier is located in the central Alaska Range (see map), just west of the Richardson Highway
and on the northern slope of the range. It consists of two main
tributaries, which are no longer connected. Both tributaries were
covered almost entirely with rock after the November 2002 Denali Fault
Earthquake released two large rockfalls from Mt. McGinnis.
The glacier advanced more than two kilometers (based on earlier
satellite imagery). This is very impressive for a glacier that is only
about 9 km long. Check out a
compilation of older photos here.
On March 13, 2006 Will Harrison and my wife Dana found the necessary
courage to fly over the glacier with me. You can find
a slideshow of those pictures here.
