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Kluane/Wrangell-St. Elias/
Glacier Bay/Tatshenshini-Alsek,
Yukon Territory, Canada, Alaska and British Columbia, Canada
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Wrangel-St. Elias-Glacier Bay/Kluane-Tatshenshini-Alsek, NPS photo
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Located on the border between Alaska and Canada, the Wrangell-St. Elias and Glacier Bay National Parks, together with the Canadian protected areas Kluane and Tatshenshini-Alsek, contain a huge chain of glaciers, comprising the first bi-national entry on the World Heritage List. Here, gargantuan ice sheets continue to move, shaping and transforming the landscape. It is a phenomenon that has been occurring since the Ice Age 11,000 years ago.
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River
at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, NPS Photo
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The icefields and the 2,000 glaciers that
radiate from them are fed by 20 feet of snow each year created by the moist Pacific air running
into the high coastal mountains. The glaciers grind and scour the rock beneath as they move slowly
under their own weight, generally traveling only a few inches or feet a year. Glaciers that work
their way to the ocean's edge create gigantic icebergs. Over eons of time, some glaciers have
gradually retreated leaving a sculpted landscape of valleys, peaks and lakes. In addition to
representing an incredible on-going geological process, this premier wilderness contains extensive
bird, animal and marine mammal habitats where trumpeter swans, Daal sheep, bison, sea lions and
the like are protected.
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Wrangel-St. Elias-Glacier Bay/Kluane-Tatshenshini-Alsek, NPS photo
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Inscribed in 1979 as a Natural site, under Criteria N (ii), (iii) and (iv).
Links
Wrangell-St.
Elias National Park
Parks
Canada
Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve
World Heritage Convention
