Bulletin of the National Speleological Society - ISSN 0146-9517
Volume 30 Number 3: 47-54 - July 1968

A publication of the National Speleological Society

Observations of a Glacier Cave in Glacier Bay National Monument, Alaska
D.N. Peterson and G.D. McKenzie

Abstract

In the summers of 1966 and 1967 a glacier cave was discovered and observed during a glaciological tunneling program on Casement Glacier, Alaska. Glacier caves are caves that occur within or at the base of a glacier, and are different from ice caves, which are subterranean caves in which ice forms and persists for some time. There are two types of glacier caves: those formed by the ablative action of englacial streams and circulating air, and those formed by the movement of ice over a bedrock protuberance. The Casement cave is of the latter type. Stalactites, stalagmites, draperies, deformed columns, cave coral, sublimation crystals, and hair ice were observed in the cave. Many of these speleothems are similar to those found in bedrock caves.

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