The Retreat of Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier

  • Released Wednesday, May 6, 2026
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From 1986 to 2024, the Mendenhall Glacier retreated by about a mile and in some places thinned by 2,000 feet. This Landsat time series uses infrared bands to differentiate ice, rocks, soil, and vegetation. Although Mendenhall’s retreat began centuries ago, warming has accelerated its decline. The Juneau Icefield, Mendenhall’s source, lost 63 of 1,050 glaciers and 10% of its ice between 2005 and 2019.

An infrared-color Landsat time series of Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier, spanning from 1986 to 2024, showing its retreat of nearly a mile and thinning of up to 2,000 feet as warming accelerates ice loss.

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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

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This page was originally published on Wednesday, May 6, 2026.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 6, 2026 at 4:10 PM EDT.