Bering Glacier

Bering Glacier is a glacier in Alaska that terminates in Vitus Lake about 10 kilometers south of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, named for the explorer Vitus Bering. Combined with the Bagley Icefield, where the snow that feeds it accumulates, the Bering Glacier system is the largest glacier in North America. It has retreated roughly 12 kilometers since 1900 due to warming temperatures and changing precipitation, though it also undergoes periodic surge events, advancing rapidly about every 20 years, most recently in the winter of 1994 to 1995. The glacier releases an estimated 30 cubic kilometers of meltwater a year, more than double the flow of the Colorado River, draining through the Seal River into the Gulf of Alaska.