---

Johns Hopkins Glacier is a 12-mile (19 km) long glacier located in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in the U.S. state of Alaska. It begins on the east slopes of Litany Mountain and Mount Salisbury, and trends east to the head of Johns Hopkins Inlet, 1 mile (1.6 km) southwest of the Clark Glacier terminus and 79 miles (127 km) northwest of Hoonah.



Johns Hopkins Glacier is about 1-mile wide, 250 feet high at the terminus, and 200 feet deep at the water line. It is formed from numerous tributary glaciers, many of which extend 12 or more miles into the surrounding peaks. About 50 medial moraines develop from the joining of these tributary glaciers. The debris in these moraines can be seen in the ice face and extending up-glacier as prominent black bands. This debris is transported in and on the ice and released either by melting the ice face or calving of icebergs into Johns Hopkins Inlet. Melt-water from the glacier is discharged from submarine tunnels or conduits located near both the eastern and western edges of the glacier. Sometimes this water emerges at the surface of the fountains. Black legged kittiwakes are commonly seen diving, floating, and feeding where the meltwater upwells along the ice face.



The glacier flows down the main valley at about 3,000 feet per year, or about 8 feet per day, according to observations made in the late 1970's by S. Brown and others. Ice flow rates have not been measured recently. However, Field, Post, Brown, Lawson and others have observed rapid calving and continued ice advance, which suggests little change in flow has occurred since Johns Hopkins began advancing in 1924, about the same time that Grand Pacific Glacier began advancing into Tarr Inlet. Ice flow and terminus advance rates appear to have fluctuated over the last several or more years.

---