Trivia bits

This bit needs a photo, plus the next few will deal with this glacier, the Athabasca glacier of the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. I made a red line in the photo. That line marks the beginning of what's called the first step of this glacier. You can see that there's at least one more 'step' behind the one I marked. Guess how far away that first step is from me, the photo taker (I did not use the telephoto function in my little camera). OK, have your guess in your mind? I'll tell you mine - and I was there! I guessed 100 yards. The guide told us it is 1 kilometer away. For those who are metrically challenged, that's over 1/2 mile away - 0.6 mile to be exact! (To get the full impact of the size of this glacier, think about each of the next sentences for a couple of seconds before reading the next one.) The entire glacier is 2.5 square miles in area. The glacier is 3.75 miles long. At its deepest, the glacier is 300 meters (1,000 feet) deep. If the Eiffel Tower were buried at the deepest part of the glacier, the people standing on the ice would be able to touch the very tip of the Tower. The place were I was standing when I took the photo is moving forward at a speed of 25 meters (80 feet) per year. I did not feel it. This is truly one of the most remarkable things I've ever seen. Gave me lots of things to think about!

The rest of the trivia bits will pertain to our trip and will be in the next, and last, post.