Alaska: an ideal glacier
laboratory
Coastal mountains in Alaska's active margins offer an
exceptional and largely untapped opportunity to
measure and to understand rates of erosion from both
glaciated and non-glaciated terrains
rates are high (relief and precipitation are both high and bedrock
is damaged)
 fjords are nearly perfect sediment traps for both suspended
sediment and bedload.
seismic profiles together with retreat history can be used to infer
sediment yield history for ~100 years
 sediment sources are close to sinks and storage is minimal