Glacier Bay

Glacier Bay Basin, in southeastern Alaska, United States, encompasses the eponymous Glacier Bay and the surrounding mountains and glaciers. It was first proclaimed a U.S. National Monument on February 25, 1925, and later enlarged and re-designated as Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve on December 2, 1980, under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, covering an area of 3,283,000 acres (1, 329, 000 hectares). In 1986, UNESCO declared an area of 57,000 acres (23, 000 hectares) within the park a World Biosphere Reserve, making it the largest UNESCO-protected biosphere in the world. In 1992, UNESCO included the area as part of a much larger World Heritage Site, extending over an area of 24,300,000 acre (9, 800, 000 ha) which also includes Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve, as well as Kluane National Park and Reserve and Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park, both in Canada. Part of Glacier Bay National Park is also designated a wilderness area covering 2,658,000 acres (1, 076, 000 hectares). Current glaciers cover a combined area of 1,375 square miles (3, 560 km2), accounting for 27 percent of the park area. Until the early 1700s, the area was a single large glacier of solid ice. It has since retreated and evolved into the largest protected water area park in the world. Glacier Bay, on the Gulf of Alaska, was once part of the Grand Pacific Glacier, about 4,000 fe

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