SPACEPHOTOS

The extensive white area in the center of this high-oblique, northeast-looking photograph is the snow- and ice-covered Saint Elias Mountains in the southwest Yukon Territory of Canada. Mt. Logan at 19 850 feet (6050 meters) is the highest peak in a range where most of the peaks exceed 12 000 feet (3655 meters) above sea level. Numerous glaciers radiating outward from the central section of each mountain are found in the valleys. Probably the most notable glaciers in the range are Seward Glacier and Malispina Glacier, which is actually located in the Alaskan panhandle along the north side of Yakutat Bay. From space Malispina is the most recognizable glacier because of its location along the Gulf of Alaska coast and its unique lobe-like shape. A classic example of a piedmont glacier, Malispina is fed by the Seward Glacier and by many other tributary glaciers. While numerous fjords (sunken valleys) and some outwash debris (a form of sediment plume) are visible in the coastal waters, many broad U-shaped valleys appear in the northeastern mountains as the drainage flows toward the interior. Two rivers can be seen—a segment of the White River, a tributary of the Yukon River, with its multibraided channels flowing generally toward the north, and the headwaters and multibraided channels of the Chitina River flowing northwest and emptying eventually into the Copper River in Alaska. An extensive area of cloudiness off the Alaskan coast obscures the coastal waters of the Gulf of Alaska.