Sculpted by water, elevated by earthquakes—The coastal landscape of Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska

The coastal landscape of Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska, is shaped by the dynamic interaction between tectonic plate motion and erosion. The Yakutat microplate moves northwest at nearly 5 centimeters per year relative to the North American Plate, causing earthquakes along the Fairweather Fault that displace the ground surface both horizontally (up to 6.5 meters) and vertically (up to 1 meter). These seismic events, such as the magnitude 7.8 earthquake in 1958, have raised and shifted the landscape over thousands to millions of years, while rivers, glaciers, and ocean waves continuously sculpt the terrain along the Gulf of Alaska coast.

Witter, R. C., LeWinter, A., Bender, A. M., Glennie, C., & Finnegan, D. (2017). Sculpted by water, elevated by earthquakes—The coastal landscape of Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska. General Information Product. https://doi.org/10.3133/gip177