Maps

The Juneau Icefield is located near Juneau in southeast Alaska. It occupies the eastern third of the area outlined by the black box in this map. The Juneau Icefield is but one of many glaciated areas along the southern coast of Alaska. Glaciers occupy the coastal mountains in a great arc from the coast of British Columbia northward through the Gulf of Alaska, Prince William Sound, along the Alaska Peninsula, and then continue westward along the Aleutian Islands. With the exception of Greenland and Antarctica, these glaciers comprise the largest ice mass in the world.

The Juneau Icefield straddles the crest of the Coast Range between Taku Inlet to the south and Skagway to the north. The largest glacier is the Taku, which begins in British Columbia and ends in Taku Inlet, a distance of approximately 60 kilometers.

Studies of the Juneau Icefield began in 1946 and have continued every summer. These studies focus on determining the climate/glacier relationship as evidenced by the mass balance regime. Concurrent with this, numerous allied studies are conducted including: investigations of the geology and geological mapping; meteorological monitoring; surveying of glacier movement, strain rates, and glacier surface elevation changes; geophysical studies such as seismic refraction, ice radar, and gravity surveys; and the investigation of past glacial history through dendrochronology and palynology studies.

This map covers an area of 160 kilometers north/south and 110 kilometers east/west.

Interesting facts about the Juneau Icefield

At 1,645 meters (5,400 feet) thick, the Taku Glacier is the thickest glacier yet discovered outside of Greenland or Antarctica.
The ultimate source of the Yukon River is a high glacial divide between the south-flowing Taku Glacier and the north-flowing Llewellyn Glacier. From the divide, tidewater is only 60 kilometers to the south. However, meltwater on the north side of the divide ultimately travels 3,200 kilometers down the Yukon River where it empties into the Bering Sea on the west coast of Alaska.
It's not uncommon for the Icefield to receive 30 meters (100 feet) of snow during the winter.
The first building on the Icefield was constructed in 1947. It was (and still is) an outhouse.
It can snow every month of the year on the Juneau Icefield.
It's actually quite common to see hummingbirds on the Icefield! They frequent certain nunataks which harbor small colonies of flowering plants.
Over 2,000 people have participated in the Juneau Icefield Research Program since its inception in 1946.