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This thick, sprawling piece of ice, six miles across and a half a mile
thick in some places, is currently the fastest moving glacier in the
world. The glacier regularly calves (splits off) small and large chunks
into the sea at Prince William Sound. Since 1982, the Columbia Glacier has
shrunk by nearly seven miles. Over the next 20 to 50 years, some
scientists expect the glacier to completely recede, leaving nothing behind
but a sprawling, rock-strewn fjord. Others note that glacier movement can
be cyclical, and Columbia Glacier is just manifesting a normal,
centuries-old pattern.
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