Last Tuesday, the Valdez Glacier Stream was running 10 feet higher than normal after a phenomenon called a Jökulhlaup, the Icelandic word for “Glacier Run”, occurred around midnight.

During the spring and early summer, a lake is formed by snowmelt high up on the Valdez Glacier. This lake is about 1/2 Mile long by 1 Mile wide and 300 feet deep, and is about 6 miles from the Valdez Glacier Lake, (the one you can drive to at the end of airport road). The Jökulhlaup Lake is dammed off by the Valdez Glacier itself.

The past few summers, the dam has suddenly collapsed causing a huge influx of water to rush through the Valdez Glacier, into the Valdez Glacier Lake, and out the Valdez Glacier Stream into the port.

Information courtesy Valdez Avalanche Center Facebook page